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STUDIES IN BRYANT: 



A TEXT-BOOK. 



4- 



BY 



JOSEPH ALDEX, D. D., 



OF THE STATE NOnMAL SCHOOL AT ALBANY. 



WITH AK INTRODUCTION 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, 




KEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

549 AND 551 BEOADWAY. 

1876. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, 

By D. APPLETON & CO., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 



CONTENTS 





PA6B 


To A Waterfowl 


11 


The West Wind .... 


19 


Green Riter .... 


25 


Autumn Woods .... 


34 


The Snow-Shower 


42 


March ..... 


47 


The Evening Wind 


50 


Waiting by the Gate 


55 


The Tides .... 


60 


The Gladness of Nature . 


65 


The Third of November, 1861 


68 


The Summer Wind 


12 


The Future Life 


11 


The Stream of Life 


80 


An Lnvitation to the Country 


82 


The Crowded Street 


85 


The Death of the Flowers . 


89 


The Return of Youth 


93 


The Hurricane 


97 


The Life that is . 


. 102 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

A Hymn op the Sea ..... 106 

Hymn to the North Star . . . Ill 

The Cloud on the Way . . . . 115 

"Innocent Child and Snow-white Flower" . . 121 

The Planting of the Apple-Tree . . . 123 



IK'TEODUCTIOS", 
By WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 

I HAD learned from Dr. Alden, at whose 
desire I write this, that he had been using my 
poems as a text-book in the institution under his 
charge, and that, in his judgment, the experiment 
had not been without success. When he applied 
to me for permission to print sorrue of the poems, 
accompanied with questions adapted to call into 
exercise the critical faculty of the pupils, I con- 
sented, but advised that they should form only a 
part of the volume, and that selections should 
also be made for the same purpose from a num- 
ber of English and American poets. To this Dr. 
Alden objected, that his plan was already formed 
and executed ; that he wished to reproduce in 
print what had been done in his class-room ; and 
further, that the method set forth could be ap- 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

plied to the writings of any author which any 
one might desire to study. 

Though I still believe that my advice was ju- 
dicious, I am not disposed to prevent the full 
execution of the original plan, especially as my 
verses, if printed by themselves, will escape the 
disadvantage of a comparison with those of other 
authors. It is well, perhaps, that a work like 
this of Dr. Alden, designed to teach the readers 
of poetry the art of forming a satisfactory judg- 
ment of what they read, should concern itself 
with compositions of the humbler sort. There is 
an old Latin adage, the purport of which is, that 
experiments should be made with cheap materials. 
In learning the mechanism of timepieces by sepa- 
rating and putting together again the different 
parts which compose their machinery, we should 
hardly think of using a watch the materials of 
which were of the highest value, the structure the 
most delicate, and the workmanship the most ex- 
quisite ; but would rather choose one of less costly 
make, which might be handled without ceremony, 
and could not be much injured in the process, or, 
if somewhat tarnished, the loss would yet be slight. 
After the pupil has become familiar with the pro- 



INTR OB UCTION. 7 

cess adopted in tliis work, and can readily analyze 
the passages lie reads with regard to the merit of 
the thought, the aptness of the expression, and 
the congruity of the parts, he may proceed to the 
eminent poets of our language, to whose waitings 
a higher veneration is due. Here he would find 
it no longer necessary to follow step by step the 
process to which he had been trained, but the 
merit of the thought and the force of the expres- 
sion would be perceived by him at a glance, just 
as an -eye accustomed to the machinery of watches 
perceives the ingenious construction and the ex- 
quisite workmanship of a chronometer, without 
separating the parts. 

I may be allowed to say for my friend who 
has paid me the compliment of making this use 
of my verses, and who has been for the greater 
part of his life a successful instructor, that he is 
fortunate in possessing an unusual facility in teach- 
ing his pupils to think — to apply their faculties 
vigorously to the subject in hand, to analyze and 
point out the results of their analysis, to discrimi- 
nate and give reasons for the discrimination. 
The application of this system of instruction to 
poetical composition forms the basis of the pres- 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

ent work. As a mental exercise, it has the effect 
of quickening the faculties in the province of 
sesthetics, enabling the pupil to distinguish be- 
tween false glitter and real splendor, between 
what is superfluous and what is essential, between 
what is frivolous and what is weighty and impor- 
tant ; in short, between sense and nonsense. As 
has been well observed, in substance, there is in 
all true poetry a reference to Reason in her higher 
moods and nobler offices, so that her jurisdiction 
is constantly acknowledged, and her laws kept 
ever in sight, and the harm»onious order of the 
universe reflected, however feebly, in the works 
of the poet. And although an ingenious caviller 
may assail high poetry with ridicule, as has some- 
times been done, yet the ridicule does not ad- 
here, but slides off, and leaves the object of attack 
unharmed. 

In judging of poetry, the main office of criti- 
cism is to discover beauties, for it is these only 
which reward the search. In the process adopted 
by the author of this work, the reader is made to 
see how, in a poem, one thought grows out of 
another, how kindred images shine by each other- s 
light, how a single word sometimes sets a whole 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

picture before tlie im agination, and how the fancy- 
may tinge with prismatic hues a thought which, 
in the utterance of any but one poetically en- 
dowed, would attract no admiration. But, beyond 
this, the process exposes whatever is faulty. If 
the thought be obscurely and vaguely expressed, 
the reader sees that it is but half a thought ; if it 
be burdened with unimportant accessories, he sees 
how they weaken its force ; in short, he perceives 
hov/ much the thought is dependent, for the im- 
pression it makes, on the language in which it is 
clothed. All idle repetitions, all ill-chosen terms, 
all feeble concessions to the exigencies of versifi- 
cation, are exposed in their naked deformity. 

At this time, when material prosperity has so 
strong a hold upon the minds of men, when the 
complicated civilization of the age has so largely 
multiplied our material wants, and turned our at- 
tention to the enterprises by which those wants 
are supplied ; when, in short, the pursuit of wealth 
is so general and so engrossing, Dr. Alden may 
justly claim the public favor in seeking to with- 
draw those who are setting out in life, from mere- 
ly selfish aims to the love of natural and moral 
beauty, and to lead them from the scramble for 



10 INTR OD UCTION. 

wealth to what has been aptly called " the still air 
of delightful studies." If it be objected that, in 
preparing this volume, he might have made a bet- 
ter choice of a poet, I have no answer to make, 
save that I cannot disagree with the objector. 

I have already intimated that Dr. Alden's 
work was completed before communicating with 
me. Let me here add that it goes to press with- 
out the slightest alteration, and that I have 
simply looked over the questions on two of the 
pieces chosen, in order to obtain a clear idea of 
the plan of the work. 



STUDIES IN BEYANT 



TO A WATERFOWL/ 

1 Whither, midst falling dew, • 
While glow the heavens with the last steps of 

day, 
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pur- 
sue 
Thy solitary way ? 

2 Yainly the fowler's eye 

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, 
As, darkly limned upon the crimson sky, 
Thy figure floats along. 

3 Seek'st thou the plashy brink 

Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, 
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink 
On the chafed ocean-side ? 

' Answers are given to the questions at first, for the purpose 
of showing the student what is expected of him. 



12 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

4 There is a Power whose care 
Teaches tliy way along that pathless coast — 
The desert and illimitable air — 

Lone wandering, but not lost. 

5 All day thy wings have fanned, 

At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, 
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land. 
Though the dark night is near. 

6 And soon that toil shall end ; 

Soon shalt thon find a summer home, and rest. 
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall 
bend, 
Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest. 

7 Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven 

Hath swallowed up thy form ; yet, on my heart 
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, 
And shall not soon depart. 

8 He who, from zone to zone. 

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain 

flight. 
In the long way that I must tread alone, 
Will lead my steps aright. 



1. What is tlie office of the first stanza— what does it 
do? 

A. It asks a question. 



TO A WATERFOWL. 13 

2. What question does it ask ? 

A. It asks where the waterfowl is going. 

3. Give the question in the language of the text. 
A. Whither dost thou pursue thy solitary way f 

4. What offices do the remaining parts of the stanza 
perform ? 

A. They state attendant circumstances. 

5. What is the office of the phrase in the first line? 
A. To indicate the time — evening. 

6. What is the office of the clause constituting the second 
line? 

A. To describe the appearance of the heavens at tlie 
close of daj. 

7. What does the phrase in the third line do ? 
A. It tells where the waterfowl pursued its way. 

8. In the first line, why is lohither better than where f 
A. TF^^iAer means "to what place;" ^c^ere means "at 

or in what place." Whither is more definite than where. 

9. Why would not Mlmy dews be better than falling 
dews ? 

A, The author wished to state the fact tliat the dew 
was falling — not to describe the dew., 

10. Why is while better than ichen ? 
A. While denotes continuance. 

11. Why is glow better than shine? 

A. Shine would not give the idea intended by the au- 
thor. The first conception suggested by shine is that of 
radiation. 

12. What is meant by the heavens ? 
A. The sky. 

13. What is meant by the last steps of day f 
A. The close of day. 

14. What figure is here used? 

A. Personification: day is personified. 



14 STUDIES m BRYANT. 

15. Do steps ever glow ? 

A. Steps of men or of animals do not. Last steps of 
day is a metaphorical expression for the close of day. The 
western sky glows at the close of day. 

16. Why not azure instead of rosy depth ? 

A. Rosy describes the appearance of the heavens. The 
glow of the heavens at the close of day is not an azure glow. 

17. What does solitary mean? 
A. Alone, unattended. 

18. Why not say, tTiy unattended way? 

A. Solitary is more expressive. It confines the attention 
to the object. Unattended calls up the idea of attendants. 

19. What is the office of the first two lines of the sec- 
ond stanza ? 

A. To make a statement or affirmation. 

20. Give the statement in prose. 

A. It is useless for the fowler to watch its flight for the 
purpose of shooting it. 

21. Why \& fowler used instead of hunter or sportsman? 
A. Fowler is a more special term. As a general rule, 

the more special the term the greater the vivacity. Fowler 
is more special than hunter, and Tiunter is more special than 
sportsman. 

22. Is eye figurative or literal ? 

A. Figurative. The instrument is put for the agent. 

23. What is the figure called? 
A. Synecdoche. 

24. May not eye be said to be used metaphorically ? 

A. Strictly speaking, there is but one figure, metaphor; 
that is to say, all figurative language may be resolved into 
metaphor. Many forms of expression which rhetoricians 
call figures are not figures. 

25. Why is marTc better than note or odserve? 
A. It is more special. 



TO A WATERFOWL. 15 

26. What is the oflBce of the last two lines in this stanza ? 
A. To describe the distant flight. 

27. Why is darkly limned better than darTcly painted • 
A. DarTcly limned is the exact description of the ap- 
pearance presented to the beholder. Painted suggests the 
idea of color. 

28. Why crimson sky ? 

A. Because the glow was a crimson glow. 

29. Why not lody instead of figure ? 
A. It was figure that the beholder saw. 

30. Why not fiies instead of floats along? 

A . Floats best describes the appearance presented. The 
motion of the wings was not visible. 

31. What is the third stanza? 
A. It is a question. 

32. How many places are mentioned in it ? 
A. Three. 

33. Name them? 

A. The lake, the river, the seashore. 

34. Is seeFst thou authorized in prose? 
A. It is not. 

35. Why is the word plasliy used? 

A. It describes the sounds made by small waves on the 
shore. 

36. What does wmr^e mean? 
A. The bank of the river. 

37. May it be used in prose ? 
A. It may not. 

38. Why not rolling instead of rocking billows? 

A. Rocking describes more perfectly the motion of the 
waters. 

39. Which is chafed — the ocean or the shore ? 
A. The shore. 

. 40. What is the fourth stanza ? 



16 STUDIES m BRYANT. 

A. It is an affirmation. 

41. What is meant by a Power? 
A. The Supreme Being. 

42. Why is teaches better than marks out ? 

A. Teaches increases the personification used. 

43. What is meant by coast? 
A. Eegion. 

44. What relation has the third line of the stanza to 
the second one? 

A. It is explanatory of it. 

45. What does lone wandering refer to ? 
A. The waterfowl. 

46. Show the propriety of lyut ? 

A. It expresses the relation between lone wandering 
and not lost. 

47. What do the first two lines of the fifth stanza do? 
A. They make a statement. 

48. Why \s fanned the best word that could be chosen? 
A. It describes the motion of the wings, and is asso- 
ciated with a pleasant idea. 

49. What does the phrase in the second line do? 
A. It tells where the wings fanned. 

50. Why are the words cold and thin used? 

A. The atmosphere at that height is cold, and less dense 
than near the earth. 

51. Is thy wings figurative or literal? 

A. There is a slight degree of personification indicated 
\)j fanned., and it is increased by the words weary and stoop. 

52. Between what does yet show the relation? 

A. Between the statements that the waterfowl had ' 
fanned the atmosphere all day, and that night was coming, 
and the statement that he had not through weariness 
stooped to visit the land. 

53. Why is the adjective welcome used? 



TO A WATERFOWL. 17 

A. To express the truth that the land is welcome as a 
place of rest. 

54. What is the first line of the sixth stanza ? 
A. It is a statement. 

55. What relation has the second line to the first? 

A. It is explanatory of it — tells how the toil shall 
end. 

56. What circumstances are mentioned as connected 
with the summer home? 

A. Rest and screaming. 

57. Why is scream, used instead of sing ? 
A. Waterfowls do not sing. 

58. What further statement do you find in this stanza ? 
A. That reeds will bend over his nest. 

59. What connection has this with the second line? 
A. It carries out the idea of home. 

60. What does the next stanza do ? 

A. It states a fact in relation to the waterfowl, and a 
fact in relation to the author. 

61. What is the relation of the second to the firgt clause 
in the stanza ? 

A. The second explains the first — tells how the event 
stated took place. 

62. What contrast is indicated by yet ? 

A. The contrast between the disappearance of the wa- 
terfowl and the permanence of the lesson. 

63. Is abyss figurative or literal ? 
A. Figurative. 

64. Indicated by what expression? 
A. Swallowed up. 

65. Is the remainder of the stanza figurative or literal? 
A. It is figurative, as are all terms describing mental 

operations. 

66. Is the word on in keeping with the word sunh ? 



18 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

A. It is not. We speak of impressions on the heart, 
but not of sinking on the heart. 

67. What is the oflBce of the eighth stanza ? 

A. To state the lesson mentioned in the seventh stanza. 

68. What analogy is implied ? 

A. The analogy between the course of the waterfowl 
and the course of a. man's life. 

69. In what sense is certain used? 
A. In the sense of unerring. 

70. What is meant by the long way f 
A. His lifetime. 

71. What is meant by guiding his steps? 
A, Guiding his course of life — his actions. 



THE WEST WIND. 

1 Beneath tlie forest's skirt I rest, 

Whose branching pines rise dark and high. 
And hear the breezes of the West 
Among the thread-like foliage sigh. 

2 Sweet Zephyr ! why that sound of w^oe ? 

Is not thy home among the flowers ? 
Do not the bright June roses blow, 
To meet thy kiss at morning hours ? 

3 And lo ! thy glorious realm outspread — 

Yon stretching valleys, green and gay, 
And yon free hill-tops, o'er whose head 
The loose white clouds are borne away. 

4 And there the full broad river runs, 

And many a fount wells fresh and sweet. 
To cool thee when the mid-day suns 

Have made thee faint beneath their heat. 

5 Thou wind of joy, and youth, and love ; 

Spirit of the new-wakened year ! 
The sun in his blue realm above 

Smooths a bright path when thou art here. 



20 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

6 In lawns the mnrmiiring bee is heard, 
The wooing ring-dove in the shade ; 
On thy soft breath, the new-fledged bird 
Takes wing, half happy, half afraid. 

Y Ah ! thou art like onr wayward race ; — 
When not a shade of pain or ill 
Dims the bright smile of ^Natm-e's face, 
Thou lov'st to sigh and murmur still. 



1. "What does the first line of the first stanza do ? 
A. It tells where the speaker rests. 

2. What does the second line do ? 

A. It describes the forest mentioned in the first line. 

3. What do the third and fourth lines do ? 
A. They tell what he heard. 

4. What figure do you find in the first line? 
A. Personification : forest is personified. 

5. What word indicates the personification? 
A. Shirt. 

6. What mental image is produced by the first two 
lines ? 

A. That of a person resting in a grove of pines. 

7. Sitting, or reclining ? 
A. Reclining. 

8. Does the text say so ? 

A. It does not, in so many words ; but he rested be- 
neath the skirt of the forest. If one is beneath a skirt, it is 
spread over him, and that implies a reclining posture. 

9. Why is the term thread-UTce used ? 
A. It describes the foliage of the pines. 



THE WEST WIND. 21 

10. What figures do you find in the last two lines of the 
stanza ? 

A. Personification and simile. The breezes are repre- 
sented as sighing, which is the act of a person, and the fila- 
ments of the pine are compared to threads. 

11. What do you find in the first line of the second 
stanza ? 

A. An apostrophe and a question. 

12. What is the question? 
A. Why that sound of woe ? 

13. What sound is referred to? 
A. The sighing of the wind. 

14. Is not woe too strong a w^ord to be used in connec- 
tion with sz^/is.? 

A. Not if we allow a little poetic license. 

15. What does the second line do? 

A. It gives a reason why the zephyr should not sigh. 

16. What is the reason? 

A. The fact that its home is among the flowers — it has 
a happy home. 

17. In what form is this stated? 

A. In that of an interrogative afiirmation. 

18. What do the two remaining lines of the stanza do? 
A. They state another reason why the zephyr should 

not sigh. 

19. What personification runs through the stanza ? 
A. That of the zephyr. 

20. What words show the personification ! 
A. Thy home and thy hiss. 

21. How is home used ? 
A. Metaphorically. 

22. What does the third stanza do ? 
A. It gives another reason. 

23. What is that reason? 



22 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

A. The glorious realm that the zephyr possesses. 

24. What is the office of lo ? 

A. To call the zephyr's attention to his realm. 

25. What relation do the remaining lines of the stanza 
sustain to the first line ? 

A. They describe the realm mentioned in it. 

26. Why would not verdant do as M^ell as stretcMng? 
A. StretcMng is more in keeping with outspread. 

27. Of what use is the last line ? 

A. It adds to the beauty of the mental image caused by 
the preceding lines. 

28. Why is head in the singular, while Mil-tops is plural ? 
A. Heads would not rhyme with outspread. 

29. Has the poet a right to use a word inaccurately for 
the sake of a rhyme ? 

A. He has not. 

30. The question why liead is used instead of lieads re- 
mains unanswered. 

A. The hill-tops are taken collectively, and are thus 
personified ; hence the plural is not required in the word 
referring to them. 

31. Is the last line of the stanza figurative or literal? 
A. Literal. 

32. Does it awaken a mental image ? 

A. It does. Figures do not furnish all the imagery of 
the poet. 

33. What do you find in the fourth stanza? 

A. A continuation of the description of the landscape. 

34. What is first mentioned ? 
A. The full droad river. 

35. Why would not deep do as well as fitllf 

A. It would not convey the idea the poet intended to 
convey. The water of a stream may be deep without fill- 
ins; its banks. 



THE WEST WIND. 23 

36. TVhat are next mentioned ? 

A. The fresh and sweet fountains. 

37. What is the meaning of sweet as here used ? 
A. Pure. 

38. What connection between the third and fourtli lines 
and the second line ? 

A. Those lines state what the fountains are adapted to 
do. 

39. Why would not hurning do as well as mid-day f 

A. It is less special. Mid-day suggests the idea of time 
as well as of heat. 

40. Give an analysis of the fifth stanza ? 

A. The first line is an apostrophe to the west wind ; the 
second is a metaphorical description of it ; the third and 
fourth lines contain a statement of what takes place when 
the wind is in season. 

41. Why is it called tlie wind of joy, and youth, and lote ? 
A. Because it prevails in the spring of the year, and 

there is an analogy between the spring-time of life and the 
spring-time of the year. 

42. Why is the year said to be new-walcened ? 

A. Because the death-like slumber of winter is over. 

43. What statement do you find in the last two lines? 
A. A statement of what the sun does, 

44. Point out the figures in those two lines. 

A. The sun is personified ; the Mue realm above is meta- 
phorical, it means the sky; smooths a bright path is meta- 
phorical ; there is personification in ichen thou art here. 

45. What connection between a bright path and the 
last clause of the stanza? 

A. The sky is usually clear when the west wind blows. 

46. What do you find in the sixth stanza? 

A. A continued statement of what takes place when 
the west wind prevails — in spring-time. 



24 STUDIES JN BRYANT. 

47. What mental images are awakened by this stanza? 
A. Images of the bee, the ring-dove, and the unfledged 

bird. 

48. Are these images poetical ? 
A. They are. 

49. What is a poetical image? 
A. A beautiful image. 

50. What is a beautiful image ? 

A. It is the image of a beautiful thing. 

51. Why is in the shade found in the second line? 

A. Because the sound alluded to is never uttered by the 
dove except when it is in the shade. 

52. What does the last stanza do ? 

A. It states an analogy between the west wind, as de- 
scribed by the poet, and the human race. 

53. What is the analogy — in what respect are they 
alike? 

A. The zephyr sighs and murmurs when it has no reason 
for so doing, and men do the same. 

54. What are personified in the stanza? 
A. The zephyr and Nature. 

55. What words personify Nature? 
A. Face and smile. 

56. State the plan of the poem. 

A. It opens by representing a person as listening to the 
sighing of the zephyr ; he proceeds to remonstrate with 
the zephyr for sighing, and to give the reasons why it should 
not do so, a,nd ends by comparing the conduct of the zephyr 
to the conduct of men. 

57. Which is the most beautiful stanza in the poem ? 



GREEN RIVER 

"When breezes are soft and skies are fair, 
I steal an lionr from study and care, 
And hie me away to the woodland scene, 
Where wanders the stream with waters of 
green, 
5 As if the bright fringe of herbs on its brink 
Had given their stain to the wave they drink ; 
And they, whose meadows it murmurs through, 
Have named the stream from its own fair hue. 

Yet pure its waters — its shallows are bright 
10 With colored pebbles and sparkles of light. 
And clear the depths where its eddies play. 
And dimples deepen and whirl away, 
And the plane-tree's speckled arms o'ershoot 
The swifter current that mines its root, 
15 Through whose shifting leaves, as you walk 
the hill, 
The quivering glimmer of sun and rill 
With a sudden flash on the eye is thrown. 
Like the ray that streams from the diamond- 
stone. 
. Oh, loveliest there the spring days come, 

3 



26 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

20 With blossoms, and birds, and wild bees' hum ; 
The flowers of summer are fairest there. 
And freshest the breath of the summer air ; 
And sweetest the golden autumn day 
In silence and sunshine glides away. 

25 Yet fair as thou art, thou shunnest to glide, 
Beautiful stream ! by the village-side ; 
But windest away from haunts of men. 
To quiet valley and shaded glen ; 
And forest, and meadow, and slope of hill, 

30 Around thee, are lonely, lovely, and still. 
Lonely — save when, by thy rippling tides, 
From thicket to thicket the angler glides ; 
Or the simpler comes, with basket and book, 
For herbs of power on thy banks to look ; 

35 Or haply, some idle dreamer, like me. 
To wander, and muse, and gaze on thee. 
Still — save the chirp of birds that feed 
On the river cherry and seedy reed. 
And thy own wild music gushing out 

40 With mellow murmur or fairy shout, • 
From dawn to the blush of another day, 
Like traveller singing along his way. 

That fairy music I never hear, 
ITor gaze on those waters so green and clear, 
45 And mark them winding away from sight. 
Darkened with shade or flashing with light, 



GREEN RIVER. 



27 



While o'er them the vine to its thicket clings, 
And the zephyr stoops to freshen his wings. 
But I wish that fate had left me free 
50 To wander these quiet haunts with thee, 
Till the eating cares of earth should depart. 
And the peace of the scene pass into my heart ; 
And I envy thy stream, as it glides along, 
Through its beautiful banks in a trance of song. 

55 Though forced to drudge for the dregs of 
men, 
And scrawl strange words with a barbarous pen, 
And mingle among the jostling crowd. 
Where the sons of strife are subtle and loud — 
I often come to this quiet place, 

60 To breathe the airs that ruffle thy face. 
And gaze upon thee in silent dream. 
For in thy lonely and lovely stream 
An image of that calm life appears 

65 That won my heart in my greener years. 



1. What do the first two lines do? 

A. They tell what the poet does, and when he does it. 

2. Why would not taJce do as well as steal f 

A. It would not express the idea of the author. 

3. What does the third line do? 
A. It tells where he goes. 

4. Would it be proper to use hie me in prose? 



28 STUDIES m BRYANT. 

A. It would not. It belongs to the poetical vocabulary 
of the language. 

5. What does the fourth line do ? 

A. It describes the woodland scene mentioned in the 
preceding line. 

6. What is the office of the phrase with waters of green ? 
A. To describe the color of the water. 

7. What do lines fifth and sixth contain ? 

A. A supposition respecting the cause of the color of 
the water. 

8. What figure do you find in these lines ? 
A. Personification. 

9. What do the seventh and eighth lines tell ? 
A. How the stream received its name. 

10. What is the office of the clause in the seventh line ? 
A. To define they. 

11. What is the meaning oi fair in the eighth line? 
A. Beautiful. 

12. What is the meaning oi fair in the first line of the 
poem? 

A. Clear or free from clouds. 

13. As the same word has different meanings, how can 
we tell what it means in a particular case? 

A. From the context. 

14. What does the poet next proceed to do? 
A. To describe the stream. 

15. What is the office of the conjunction yet? 

A. To mark the supposed opposition between the color 
and the purity of the waters. 

16. What is first mentioned ? 

A. The shallows, bright with colored pehMes and spar- 
kles of light. 

17. What two ideas are given by that line? 

A. The colored pebbles seen through the clear water, 



GREEN RIVER. 29 

and the sparkles of liglit reflected from the irregular sur- 
face caused by the shallow places. 

18. What is the next thing mentioned? 
A. The eddies with their dwqyles. 

19. How are the dimples described? 
A. As deepening and whirhng away. 

20. Why are they mentioned in connection with eddies ? 
A. Because they are seen in connection with eddies. 

21. Is the use of dimples here literal or figurative ? 
A. Figurative. 

22. What is the literal meaning Q>i dimpled 

A. A small cavity or depression on the cheek or some 
part of the face. 

23. What is next mentioned ? 

A. The plane-tree^ with its root undermined by the 
stream. 

24. Where did the poet get his ideas of the things above 
mentioned ? 

A. He saw the things. 

25. Can "we form distinct mental images of them all? 
A. We can, 

26. What is a mental image ? 

A. It is a certain state of mind which cannot be de- 
scribed. 

27. What is the next thing mentioned ? 

A. The reflection, through the moving leaves, of the 
light from the water. 

28. What is it compared to ? 

A. The light flashing from the diamond. 

29. What follows the comparison ? 

A. A statement that the spring daj^s are lovehest there. 

30. What is the relation of the twentieth line to the 
preceding one ? 

A. It mentions the adjuncts of the day. 



30 STUDIES W BRYANT. 

81. What do the next four lines contain ? 
A. Statements respecting the summer flowers, and the 
summer air, and the autumn day. 

32. Which of these things is personified ? 
A. The summer air. 

33. What is the next statement? 

A. That the stream shunned the village. 

84. What does the adversative yet imply ? 

A. Jhat for a beautiful stream it pursued an unexpected 
course. 

85. What truth is suggested by the analogy ? 

A. That beautiful persons do not hide their beauty. 
36. Why is windest used ? 
A. To describe the course of the stream. 
87. Could you not say shaded valley and quiet glen f 
A. Shaded belongs more properly to glen, because a 
glen is a narrow valley, and more easily shaded. 

38. How many mental images are awakened by the next 
line? 

A. Three. 

39. What is affirmed of forest, meadow, and slope of 
hill? 

A. That they are lonely, lovely, and still. 

40. What is the office of the next six lines? 
A. To state the exceptions to their loneliness. 

41. What are the exceptions mentioned ? 

A. Those of the angler, the sim2)ler, and the dreamer. 

42. Why does the angler glide from thicket to thicket? 
A. Because the fish are found in the pools shaded by 

the thickets. 

43. Why is glides the best word in this place? 

A. Because it describes the cautious movements of the 
angler. 

44. What is a simpler? 



GREEN RIVER. 31 

A. One who gathers medicinal herbs. 

45. "What is meant by herbs of 'power ? 
A. Herbs having power to cure diseases. 

46. Is dreamer literal or figurative ? 
A. Figurative. 

47. "What is literally a dreamer ? 
A, One who dreams in his sleep. 

48. What is meant by dreamer here ? 

A. He is described in the thirty-sixth line. 

49. Why is s«t7? used ? 

A. It refers to the thirtieth line. 

50. What is the office of the six Hnes beginning with 
still. 

A. To state the exceptions to the stillness of meadow, 
forest, and slope of hill. 

51. What exceptions are mentioned ? 

A. The chirp of birds, and the music of the stream. 

52. Why is chirp used instead of song ? 

A. To express the peculiar sound made by the birds 
specified. 

53. What two sounds are mentioned under the head of 
the music of the stream ? 

A. The mellow murmur^ and fairy shout. 

54. What is the difiference between them? 

A. The mellow murmur is the continuous sound made 
by the stream in passing over pebbles or obstructions. The 
fairy shout is an occasional sound made by a pecuhar ob- 
struction that does not produce a continuous sound. Some- 
times the water strikes an obstacle so as to produce a sud- 
den and interrupted sound. 

55. What is the office of the forty-first line ? 
A. To express the continuity of the music ? 

56. What does the next line do ? 

A. It compares the brook to a traveller singing on his way. 



32 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

57. Point out the words used metaphorically in the six 
lines just examined. 

A. Music, shout, tlusTi. 

58. What does the writer next proceed to do? 
A. To describe the effect of his visit to the river. 

59. What is meant \>j fairy music f 
A. The music of the stream. 

60. In the renewed description, what two new ideas 
are introduced ? 

A. The overshadowing vine, and the zephyr stooping to 
freshen his wings. 

61. Is mwe personified ? 

A. Slightly by the word clings. 

62. What mental image does the next line awaken? 
A. That of a bird. 

63. What allusion is found here? 

A. An allusion to the fact that birds, especially swal- 
lows, strike the water with their wings. 

64. What desire was awakened by the sights and sounds 
described ? 

A. The desire to wander with the stream. 

65. What effect did the writer think would follow ? 
A. Freedom from care, and peace of mind. 

QQ. What other feeling was awakened? 
A. That of envy. 

67. Is envy used literally ? 

A. It is not; it iQ'a&Q^ poetically. 

68. What is meant by a trance of song ? 
A. A state of great enjoyment — ecstasy. 

69. To what is allusion made in the next four lines ? 
A. To the practice of law. 

70. What is the ofiice of the remaining lines of the 
poem? 

A. To tell what he did, and the reason for so doing. 



GREEN RIVER. 33 

71. What was the reason for visiting the scene? 

A. It recalled the conception of life formed in his 
youth. 

72. State the plan of the poem. 

A. The poet designed to describe the river, presenting 
beautiful mental images by so doing, and to state the im- 
pressions made upon his own mind. 

73. Which is the most beautiful line in the poem ? 



AUTUMN WOODS. 

1 Eee, in the northern gale, 

The summer tresses of the trees are gone, 
The woods of autnmn, all around our vale. 
Have put their glory on. 

2 The mountains that infold, 

In their wide sweep, the colored landscape 

round, 
Seem groups of giant kings, in purple and 

gold. 
That guard the enchanted ground. 

3 I roam the woods that crown 

The upland, where the mingled splendors glow, 
Where the gay company of trees look down 
On the green fields below. 

4 My steps are not alone 

In these bright walks; the sweet southwest 

at play 
Flies, rustling, where the painted leaves are 

strown 
Along the winding way. 



AUTUMN WOODS. 35 

5 And far in heaven, the while, 

The sun, that sends that gale to wander here, 
Pours out on the fair earth his quiet smile — 
The sweetest of the year. 

6 Where now the solemn shade, 
Verdure and gloom where many branches 

meet ; 
So grateful, when the noon of summer made 
The valleys sick with heat ? 

7 Let in through all the trees 

Come the strange rays ; the forest depths are 

bright, 
Their sunny-colored foliage, in the breeze. 
Twinkles, like beams of light. 

8 The rivulet, late unseen. 

Where bickering through the shrubs its waters 

run. 
Shines with the image of its golden screen 
And glimmerings of the sun. 

9 But 'neath yon crimson tree. 

Lover to listening maid miight breathe his 

flame, 
Nor mark, within its roseate canopy, 
Her blush of maiden shame. 



36 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

10 O Autumn ! why so soon 

Depart the hues that make thy forests glad, 
Thy gentle wind and thy fair sunny noon, 
And leave thee wild and sad ! 

11 Ah ! 'twere a lot too blest 
Forever in thy colored shades to stray ; 
Amid the kisses of the soft south-west 

To rove and dream for aye ; 

12 And leave the vain low strife 

That makes men mad — the tug for wealth and 

power ; 
The passions and the cares that wither life, 
And waste its little hour. 



1. What is the office of the first two lines of the first 
stanza ? 

A. To state a circumstaiice of time. 

2. What is the office of the next two lines? 
A. To state what the woods did. 

3. The stanza, then, tells what was done and when it 
was done. When was it done ? 

A. Before the summer tresses of the trees had gone. 

4. What is meant by summer tresses f 
A. Leaves. 

5. How is the word tresses used ? 
A. Metaphorically. 

6. What effect has this use of the word ? 
A. It personifies 



AUTUMN WOODS. 37 

7. How does it do it? 

A, By ascribing to them something which belongs to a 
living being. 

8. Why is northern gale mentioned ? 

A. Because the cold north wind usually takes the leaves 
from the trees. 

9. Where were the woods that had put their glory on f 
A. On the hills. 

10. How does that appear? 

A. The woods were all around the vale. 

11. What mental image is awal^ened? 
A. That of a valley surrounded by hills. 

12. What language is used in the last line? 
A. 'Metaphorical language. 

13. When are words said to be metaphorical. 

A. When they are used in a sense differing from the 
literal or primary meaning. 

14. Is woods personified ? 

A. The woods are spoken of as performing the act of a 
person — putting on. 

15. What is meant hj putting their glory on ? 

A. Having their leaves take the brilliant hues of au- 
tumn. 

16. Is it implied that the leaves in the valley were still 
green ? 

A. It is, and with reason ; for the frost turns the leaves 
on the hills before it turns those in the valleys. 

17. What does the second stanza contain? 
A. A comparison. 

18. What is the comparison? 

A. The mountains are compared to giant hings. 

19. What mountains are compared to kings? 

A. The mountains that infold the colored landscape. 

20. Why is infoldt better than surround? 

4 



38 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

A. Infold has a more specific and personal meaning 
than surround. 

21. Do not the words, colored landscape^ imply that the 
trees in the valley were colored? 

A. The word round turns the attention to the hill-sides. 

22. What is the office of the phrase, In their wide 
sweep ? 

A. It gives an idea of the extent of the valley. 

23. "Why is groups used? 

A. On account of the numher of the mountain-peaks in 
view. 

24. What figure in purple and gold f 
A. Metaphor. 

25. What is the phrase used to describe ? 
A. The appearance of the leaves. 

26. What does the third stanza contain? 
A. A statement of what the winter did. 

27. What is meant by the woods that crown the upland ? 
A. The trees on the summits of the mountains. 

28. What is meant by mingled splendors? 
A. The different hues of the leaves. 

29. What in this stanza is in keeping with our concep- 
tions formed above as to the appearance of the valley? 

A. The fields in the valley are called green. 

30. What is the most striking line in this stanza? 
A. The third line. 

31. What figure in that line? 
A. Personification. 

32. What is the leading statement in the next stanza ? 
A. That the writer was not alone in his walk. 

33. Why is 5H^^^ used? 

A. In view of the bright colors of the trees. 

34. What does the remainder of the stanza do ? 
A. It describes his companion. 



AUTUMN WOODS. 39 

35. Who was his companion ? 
A. The south-west wind. 

36. Why is it called street .? 

A. Because it is mild and pleasant. 

37. How is it described ? ^ 
A. As at play with the leaves. 

38. Why is rustling used ? 

A. Because it made the leaves rustle. 

39. What mental image is awakened by the last clause 
of the stanza ? 

A. Of a winding path in tlie woods strewed with colored 
leaves. 

40. Point out the figures found in the stanza. 

A. In the case of steps^ the act is put for the agent; 
this is termed metonymy. South-west is personified, painted 
leaves is a metaphor. 

41. What is the oflSce of the next stanza? 
A. To make a statement. 

42. What is the statement? 

A. That the sun smiles on the earth. 

43. What is the office of the first phrase in the stanza? 
A. To tell where the sjm is. 

44. What does tJie icJiile refer to ? 

A. To the time when the writer was walking in the 
woods. 

45. What is the office of the parenthetical clause in the 
second line ? 

A. To state that the sun sent the south-west wind. 

46. Why is pours used ? 

A. To express the abundant sunshine given. 

47. What marks the personification oi sun? 
A. The parenthetical clause, and smile. 

48. What relation has the fourth line of the stanza to 
the third? 



40 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

A. It describes the quiet smile. 

49. What does the next stanza do ? 
A. It asks a question. 

50. "What lines contain the question? 
A. The first two. 

5l!* What do the last two lines do ? 

A. They state facts in relation to the shade. 

52. What relation has the second line to the first ? 
A. It describes the shade mentioned in the first. 

53. What figure in the stanza? 
A. Personification. 

54. What does the next stanza do ? 

A. It describes the absence of the shade in the forest, 

55. Why strange rays f 

A. Because they had not been accustomed to enter there,, 

56. What is meant \>j sunny -colored foliage f 
A. The colored foliage in the sunlight. 

57. What is meant by twinUes? 

A. The effect of the light reflected from the leaves as 
moved by the breeze. 

58. What is meant by liJce leams of light f 
A. As if they emitted rays. , 

59. What does the next stanza do? 

A. It states another effect of the changed condition of 
the woods. 

60. What is the statement? 

A. That the rivulet reflects the image of the colored 
trees, and glimmers in the sun's rays. 

61. Why late unseen? 

A. In consequence of the deep shade before the frost came. 

62. What does the second line do? 

A. It describes the course of the rivulet. 

63. Why is McTcering used? 

A. To describe the sound made by the running stream. 



AUTUMN WOODS. 41 

64. What is the office of the next stanza ? 
A. To state a supposition or a possibility. 

65. What supposition ? 

A. That the lover might tell his love to a maiden under 
the tree, and not see her blushes. 

66. Why not? 

A. Because of the roseate hue reflected from the crim- 
son leaves above. 

67. What is the next stanza? 
A. An address to Autumn. 

68. What question is asked ? 

A. Why the colored leaves, and gentle wind, and fair 
sun, depart so soon. 

69. Of what is the question an expression? 

A. An expression of regret for their departure. 

70. What relation has the next stanza to this ? 
A. It suggests a reason for the departure. 

71. What is the reason ? 

A. That one would be too happy if this were not the case. 

72. What word in the third line indicates the personi- 
fication of the south-west? 

A. Kisses. 

73. What does the last stanza do? 

A. It describes some of the consequences of a lot too 
blest. 

74. What is meant by 7nad ? 
A. Insane. 

75. Why is tug used ? 

A. To express the lowness of the strife. 

76. What is meant by withering life f 

A. Lessening its happiness, and making it what it 
ought not to be. 

77. Why is little hour used ? 

A. To express the brevity of life. 



THE SNOW-SHOWER. 

Stand here by my side and turn, I pray, 
On the lake below thy gentle eyes ; 

The clouds hang over it, heavy and gray, 
And dark and silent the water lies ; 

And out of that frozen mist the snow 

In wavering flakes begins to flow ; 

Flake after flake 

They sink in the dark and silent lake. 

See how in a living swarm they come 

From the chambers beyond that misty veil ; 

Some hover awhile in air, and some 

Rush prone from the sky Hke summer hail. 

All, drooping swiftly or settling slow, 

Meet, and are still in the depths below ; 

Flake after flake 

Dissolved in the dark and silent lake. 

Here delicate snow-stars, out of the cloud. 
Come floating downward in airy play, 

Like spangles dropped from the glistening crowd 
That whiten by night the milky- way ; 



THE SNOW-SHOWER. 43 

There broader and burlier masses fall ; 
The sullen water buries them all — 

Flake after flake- 
All drowned in the dark and silent lake. 



And some, as on tender wdngs they glide 
From their chilly birth-cloud, dim and gray. 

Are joined in their fall, and, side by side, 
Come clinging along their unsteady way ; 

As friend with friend, or husband with wife, 

Makes hand in hand the passage of life ; 

Each mated flake 

Soon sinks in the dark and silent lake. 



Lo ! while we are gazing, in swifter haste 
Stream down the snows, till the air is white, 

As, myriads by myriads madly chased. 

They fling themselves from their shadowy height. 

The fair, frail creatures of middle sky, 

What speed they make, with their grave so nigh ; 

Flake after flake, 

To lie in the dark and silent lake ! 

I see in thy gentle eyes a tear ; 

They turn to me in sorrowful thought ; 
Thou thinkest of friends, the good and dear, 

Who were for a time, and now are not ; 



44 S1UDIE8 IN BRYANT. 

Like these fair children of cloud and frost, 
That glisten a moment and then are lost, 

Flake after flake — 
All lost in the dark and silent lake. 

Yet look again, for the clouds divide ; 

A gleam of blue on the water lies ; 
And far away, on the mountain-side, 

A sunbeam falls from the opening skies. 
But the hurrying host that flew between 
The cloud and the water, no more is seen ; 

Flake after flake, 
At rest in the dark and silent lake. 



1. What do tlie first two lines contain? 

2. "What is the ofiice of the remaining hnes of the stanza? 

3. State the mental image, or images, produced by the 
stanza. 

4. Are clouds ever gray f 

5. 1^ frozen to be understood literally? 

6. Is there an instance of personification in the stanza? 

7. What advantage in the repetition oifiake after JiaTce? 

8. Why would not fall do as well as sinh — in the last 
line? 

9. What do the first two lines of the second stanza con- 
tain? 

10. What is the ofiBce of the next two lines? 

11. What do the last four lines do ? \ 

12. What metaphor in the first line? 

13. Why not say, UTce a living swarm? 



THE SNOW-SHOWER. 45 

14. What figures in the second line? 

15. What figures in the third and fourth lines? 

16. What is the office of the phrase in the fifth line? 

17. Is lake personified? 

18. What statement in the first two lines of the third 
stanza? 

19. What is the office of the third line? 

20. What is the office of the fourth line? 

21. What does the fifth line do? 

22. What do the remaining lines do ? 

23. What relation have the seventh and eighth lines to 
the sixth ? 

24. Point out all the words used figuratively in this 
stanza. 

25. Of what is the next stanza a continued description? 

26. State the incident first mentioned. 

27. What simile follows? 

28. What figurative language in the first line ? 

29. y^hj unsteady. W2ij'i 

30. Is the sixth line literal or figurative ? 

31. What is the meaning of the line? 

32. Why is the term mated used ? 

33. Would mated have been used, if the simile in the 
lines before it had not been used ? 

34. What is the office of the two phrases in the first line 
in the fifth stanza? 

35. Why would not rush do as well as stream f 

36. What relation have the third and fourth lines to the 
first two lines? 

37. What is the office of the fifth line? 

38. What is the remainder of the stanza ? 

39. What relation has the sixth stanza to what goes be- 
fore? 

A. It expresses an analogy suggested by the scene. 



4:6 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

40. What is the analogy ? 

41. What figure in the fifth line? 

42. What do the first two lines express? 

A. The effect of a perception of the analogy. 

43. What is stated in the first line of the seventh stanza ? 

44. What relation has the second line to the first? 

45. What caused the gleam of blue? 

46. What is the next fact stated ? 

47. And the next? 

48. What is meant by the Tiost f 

49. What relation have the last two lines to the pre- 
ceding one ? 

50. What is the plan or object of the poem ? 



I 



MARCH. 

1 The stormy March is come at last 

With wind, and cloud, and changing skies: 
I hear the rushing of the blast, 

That through the snowy valley flies. 

2 Ah, passing few are they who speak, 

Wild, stormy month ! in praise of thee ; 
Yet, though thy winds are loud and bleak, 
Thou art a welcome month to me. 

3 For thou, to northern lands, again 

The glad and glorious sun dost bring. 
And thou hast joined the gentle train 
And wear'st the gentle name of Spring. 

4 And, in thy reign of blast and stonn. 

Smiles many a long, bright, sunny day, 
When the changed winds are soft and warm, 
And heaven puts on the blue of May. 

5 Then sing aloud the gushing rills 

From winter's durance just set free, 
And, brightly leaping down the hills, 
Begin their journey to the sea. 



48 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

6 The year's departing beauty hides 

Of wintry storms the sullen threat ; 
But in thy sternest frown abides 
A look of kindly promise yet. 

7 Thou bring'st the hope of those calm skies, 

And that soft time of sunny showers, 

When the wide bloom, on earth that lies, 

Seems of a brighter world than ours. 



1. What does the first line affirm? 

2. What is the office of the second line ? 

3. What is the third line ? 

4. What connection has the fourth with the third line ? 

5. What do the first two lines of the second stanza con- 
tain ? 

6. What is the meaning oi ]_mssing f 

7. What figure in the second line ? 

8. What is the office of yet f 

9. What relation has the third stanza to the last line 
of the second stanza ? 

10. What two reasons are contained in the stanza? 

11. What is meant by bringing the sun to northern 
lands ? 

12. What alliteration do you notice ? 

13. Point out the words which are used figuratively. 

14. What is the office of the first two lines of the fourth 
stanza ? 

15. What relation have the last two to the first two 
lines ? 

16. Which is the most striking line in the stanza? 



MARCH. 49 

17. Is Jieaven personified ? 

18. What relation does the fifth stanza sustain to the 
fourth ? 

A. The relation of consequence or of eflTect. 

19. State the effect. 

20. What figurative language do you find in the stanza ? 

21. What is meant by the year's departing 'beauty f 

22. What does the next line mean? 

23. What contrast expressed between the first two and 
the last two lines ? State it in literal language. 

A. The pleasant days of autumn give no intimation of 
the coming storms of winter, but the roughest days of March 
give Intimation of pleasant days to come. 

24. What connection between the seventh stanza and 
the sixth ? 

A, The seventh is a continuation of the thought ex- 
pressed in the last line of the sixth stanza. 

25. What simile do you find in this steinza ? 

26. Which is the finest stanza in the poem ? 



THE EVENING WIND. 

Spirit that breathest through my lattice, thou 
That cool' St the twilight of the sultry day, 

Gratefully flows thy freshness rouud my brow : 
Thou hast been out upon the deep at play. 

Riding all day the wild blue weaves till now, 
Roughening their crests, and scattering high 
their spray 

And swelling the white sail. I welcome thee 

To the scorched land, thou wanderer of the 
sea ! 



Nor I alone — a thousand bosoms round 
Inhale thee in the fullness of delight ; 

And languid forms rise up, and pulses bound 
Livelier, at coming of the wind of night ; 

And, languishing to hear thy grateful sound. 
Lies the vast inland stretched beyond the 
sight. 

Go forth into the gathering shade ; go forth, 

God's blessing breathed upon the fainting earth ! 



THE EVE^UNG WIND. 51 



3 Go, rock the little wood-bird in liis nest, 

Curl the still waters, bright with stars, and 
rouse 
The wide old wood from his majestic rest. 

Summoning from the innumerable boughs 
The strange, deep harmonies that haunt his 
breast : 
Pleasant shall be thy way where meekly bows 
The shutting flower, and darkling waters pass. 
And where the o'ershadowing branches sweep 
the grass. 

4 'The faint old man shall lean his silver head 

To feel thee ; thou shalt kiss the child asleep, 
And dry the moistened curls that overspread 

His temples, while his breathing grows more 
deep: 
And they who stand about the sick man's bed. 

Shall joy to listen to thy distant sweep. 
And softly part his curtains to allow 
Thy visit, grateful to his burning brow. 

5 Go — but the circle of eternal change, 

Which is the life of I^ature, shall restore, 
With sounds and scents from all thy mighty 
range. 

Thee to thy birthplace of the deep once more ; 
Sweet odors in the sea-air, sweet and stransre. 

Shall tell the homesick mariner of the shore ; 



52 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

And, listening to tlij murninr, he shall deem 
He hears the rustling leaf and running stream. 



1. What figure in the first line? 

2. What two defining statements are made ? 

8. What is the third line ? 
A. A* statement. 

4. What is the fourth line ? 

5. What relation have the fifth, sixth, and seventh lines 
to the fourth line ? 

6. Mention the things specified. 

7. How is the term n^Zm^ used? 
8: How is roughening used? 

9. How is swelling used ? 

10. Of what does the remaining part of the stanza con- 
sist? 

11. Why is scorcTied used? 

12. Why would not parched do as well? 

13. Of what verb is /the subject in the second stanza? 

14. With what part of the preceding stanza is this 
stanza connected ? 

15. What does it proceed to mention? 

16. What is first mentioned ? 

17. Is hosoms figurative or literal? 

18. What is next mentioned? 

19. What figure is used ? 

20. What is the office of the phrase in the fourth line ? 
• 21. To what does the phrase in the fifth line belong? 

22. Is inland personified ? 

23. What words show it? 

24. Where is the poet supposed to be when he wel- 
comes the wind ? 



THE EVENING WIND. 53 

25. What is the office of the seventh line ? 

26. What is the relation of the eighth line to tlie 
seventh ? 

27. Why is fainting used ? 

28. What connection between the third stanza and the 
second? • 

29. What is the first thing the wind is told to do? 

30. Why rocTc instead of sway ? 

81. What analogy is suggested? 

82. What is the next thing it is told to do? 

33. What is meant by mirling the still loatersf 

34. How were they bright with stars ? 

85. What is the next thing it is told to do? 

86. What figure in the third line? 

37. What relation have the fourth and fifth lines to 
what goes before? 

88. What figures in the fourth line? 

39. What statement in the first part of the sixth line ? 

40. What does tJiy refer to ? 

41. In how many places is it affirmed that his way 
should be pleasant ? 

42. Mention the first ; the second ; the third. 

43. Is floioer personified? 

44. What is meant by darTcling ? 

45. What does the fourth stanza consist of? 

46. What is the first statement ? 

47. How is silver used ? 

48. What is the second statement? 

49. What effect is mentioned as following the kiss? 

50. What further effect is nientioned ? 

51. What is the next statement? 

52. What connection has the seventh line with the 
sixth ? 

53. What is the office of the last phrase of the stanza? 



54 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

54. "What assertion is made in the first four lines of the 
fifth stanza ? 

55. What is meant bj restoration to his birthplace ? 

56. What is mentioned as the cause of this restoration ? 

57. What is the office of the second line ? 

58. What is the office of the third line? 

59. What relation have the fifth and sixth lines to the 
preceding lines ? 

GO, Is odors personified ? 

61. What word personifies it ? 

62. What do the last two lines state ? 

A, The eflfect of the wind on the homesick mariner. 



WAITING BY THE GATE. 

1 Beside a massive gateway built up in years 

gone by, 
Upon whose top the clouds in eternal shadow 
lie, 
. "While streams the evening sunshine on quiet 

wood and lea, 
I stand and calmly wait till the hinges turn 
for me. 

2 The tree-tops faintly rustle beneath flie breeze's 

flight, 

A soft and soothing sound, yet it whispers of 
the night ; 

I hear the wood-thrush piping one mellow des- 
cant more, 

And scent the flowers that blow when the heat 
of day is o'er. 

3 Behold the portals open, and o'er the threshold, 

now. 
There steps a weary one with a pale and fur- 
rowed brow ; 



56 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

His count of years is full, his allotted task is 

wrought ; 
He passes to his rest from a place that needs 

him not. 

4 In sadness then I ponder how qnicklj fleets 

the hour 
Of human strength and action, man's courage 

and his power. 
I muse while still the wood-thrush sings down 

the golden day, 
And as I look and listen the sadness wears 

away. 

5 Again the hinges turn, and a youth, departing, 

throws 
A look of longing backward, and sorrowfully 

goes ; 
A blooming maid, unbinding the roses from 

her hair. 
Moves mournfully away from amidst the young 

and fair. 

6 Oh glory of our race that so suddenly decays ! 
Oh crimson flush of morning that darkens as 

we gaze ! 
Oh breath of summer blossoms that on the 

restless air 
Scatters a moment's sweetness, and flies we 

know not where ! 



WAITING BY THE GATE. 57 

7 I grieve for life's bright promise, just shown 

and then withdrawn ; 
But still the sun shines round me : the evenino^ 

bird sings on, 
And I again am soothed, and, beside the ancient 

gate, 
In this soft evening sunlight, I calmly stand 

and wait. 

8 Once more the gates are opened; an infant 

group go out, 

The sw^eet smile quenched forever, and stilled 
the sprightly shout. 

Oh frail, frail tree of Life, that upon the green- 
sward strows 

Its fair young buds unopened, with every wind 
that blows ! 

9 So come from every region, so enter, side by 

side. 
The strong and faint of spirit, the meek and 

men of pride. 
Steps of earth's great and mighty, between 

those pillars gray. 
And prints of little feet, mark the dust along 

the way.. 

10 And some approach the threshold whose looks 
are blank with fear, 
And some whose temples brighten with joy in 
drawing near, 



58 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

As if tliey saw dear faces, and caiiglit the gra- 
cious eye 

Of Him, the Sinless Teacher, who came for us 
to die. 

11 I mark the joy, tlie terror ; yet these, within 
my heart. 
Can neither wake the dread nor the longing to 

depart ; 
And, in the sunshine streaming on quiet wood 

and lea, 
I stand and calmly wait till the hinges turn 
for me. 



1. "What is meant by the gateway f 

2. What does the second line do ? 

3. What is the thought expressed by this figurative lan- 
guage? 

4. What does the third line express ? 

5. What is the thought in this line ? 

6. What is the fourth line ? 

7. What is meant by the hinges turning ? 

8. Is the second stanza to be understood literally or 
figuratively ? 

9. What period of life is it intended to describe? 

10. To what do all the images it contains relate ? 

11. What does the third stanza describe ? 

12. Point out the figurative portions of the stanza. 

13. What connection has the fourth stanza .with the 
third? 



WAITING BY THE GATE. 59 

14. What does the fifth stanza do ? 

15. Point out the figurative expressions in the stanza. 

16. "What is meant bj unbinding the roses f 

17. What relation has the next stanza to the fifth ? 

18. What is the first line of the stanza? 

19. Is it literal or figurative? 

20. To what is life compared in the second line ? 

21. To what in the third and fourth lines? 

22. What statement in the first line of the seventh 
stanza ? 

23. Are the remaining lines figurative or literal ? 

24. Point out the figurative expressions, and give the 
thoughts in literal language. 

25. What is the ofiice of the first two lines of the eighth 
stanza ? 

26. What is the office of the last two ? 

27. What figures in these lines? 

28. What name do you give to the forms of expression 
in the second line of the ninth stanza ? 

29. Is the line figurative? 

30. What figures in the last two lines ? Change the 
figurative into literal language. 

31. What does the first line of the tenth stanza tell ? 
82. What does the second line ? 

33. What relation have the last two lines to the second 
line? 

34. What is the office of the first clause of the eleventh 
stanza ? 

35. What is the office oiyetf 

36. What thought do the last two lines express? 



THE TIDES. 

1 The moon is at her full, and, riding high, 

Floods the calm fields with light. 
The airs that hover in the summer sky 
Are all asleep to-night. 

2 There comes no voice from the great woodlands 

round 
That murmured all the day ; 
Beneath the shadow of their boughs the ground 
Is not more still than they. . 

3 But ever heaves and moans the restless Deep ; 

His rising tides I hear, 
Afar I see the glimmering billows leap ; 
I see them breaking near. 

4 Each wave springs upward, climbing toward 

the fair 
Pure light that sits on high — 
Springs eagerly, and faintly sinks, to where 
The mother water's lie. 



THE TIDES. 61 

5 Upward again it swells ; the moonbeams sliow 
Again its glimmering crest ; 
Again it feels the fatal weight below, 
And sinks, but not to rest. 



6 Again and yet again ; until the Deep 

Recalls his brood of waves ; 
And, with a sullen moan, abashed, they creep 
Back to his inner caves. 



7 Brief respite ! they shall rush from that recess 

With noise and tumult soon. 
And fling themselves, with unavailing stress. 
Up toward the placid moon. 

8 O restless Sea, that, in thy prison here. 

Dost struggle and complain ; 
Through the slow centuries yearning to be 
near 
To that fair orb in vain ; 

9 The glorious source of light and heat must 

warm 
Thy billows from on high. 
Arid change them to the cloudy trains that 

form 
The curtains of the sky. 



62 STUDIES /iV BRYANT. 

10 Then only may tliey leave the waste of brine 
In which they welter here, 
And rise above the hills of earth, and shine 
In a serener sphere. 



1. What is the first statement ? 

2. Is it literal, or figurative ? 

3. Is riding figurative ? 

4. What figure? 

5. Is floods literal ? 

6. What do the last two lines of the stanza contain? 
Y. What figures in these lines ? 

8. What is the office of the first two lines of the second 
stanza ? 

9. What personification in these lines? 

10. What comparison in the last two lines? 

11. What connection has this stanza with the preceding 
one? 

12. What relation does the third stanza sustain to the 
second? 

A. The relation of contrast. 

13. What was affirmed of the woods? 

14. What is affirmed of the deep ? 

15. Is deep personified? 

16. What words indicate it? 

17. What connection has the second Hne with the first? 

18. What do the two remaining lines of the stanza con- 
tain? 

19. What does glimmering express? 

20. What personification do jou find ? 

21. What does the fourth stanza do ? 

A. It gives a continued description of the restless 



THE TIDES. G3 

22. What words are used metaphorically in tlie first 
line? 

23. What is meant by t\iQ fair pure light? 

24. Why the repetition of springs in the third line ? 

A. It aids us to form a more perfect mental image of 
the scene described. 

25. What is meant by the mother icaters? 

26. What does the next stanza contain ? 

27. What does it refer to ? 

28. Why sioells instead of springs f 

29. What is meant by crest f 

30. What was i\iQ fatal iceight? 

31. What is tbe connecting phrase between this and the 
next stanza? 

• 32. What ellipsis in connection with the first phrase ? 

33. What is the meaning of the next clause ? 

34. Why is the word hrood used ? 

35. Of what are the last two lines a description ? 
A. Of the falling of the tide. 

36. What words indicate personification? 

37. AYhat does the next stanza describe ? 

38. What does they refer to? 

39. What does the second line tell ? 

40. What terms have been used above to express the act 
here expressed hjjling themselves? 

41. Point out the expressions corresponding to unavail- 
ing stress. 

42. Are these different terms used merely for the sake 
of variety ? 

A. Each calls up a somewhat different mental image of 
what actually takes place. 

43. What does the next stanza contain ? 

44. How is the sea represented ? 

45. What does the next stanza tell ? 



64 STUDIES, m BRYAN 7\ 

A. How the yearning can be gratified. 

46. What is the glorious source of light and heat f 

47. What must he do? 

48. How is the process of evaporation and cloud-form- 
ing expressed by the poet ? 

49. What, in the last stanza, does they refer to ? 

50. What is meant by the waste of Irine f 

51. What distmction between the lillow and the Irine? 

52. What is meant by weltering? 

53. What is meant by shining in a serener sphere ? 

54. Which is the most beautiful and original figure in 
the poem ? 



THE GLADNESS OF NATURE. 

1 Is this a time to be' cloudy and sad, 

When our mother Nature laughs around ; 
When even the deep blue heavens look glad, 
And gladness breathes from the blossoming 
ground ? 

2 There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and 

wren. 
And the gossip of swallows through all the 

sky ; 
The ground-squirrel gayly chii-ps by his den, 
And the wilding bee hums merrily by. 

3 The clouds are at play in the azure space, 

And their shadows at play on the bright green 
vale. 
And here they stretch to the frolic chase. 
And there they roll on 'the easy gale. 



QQ STUDIES in BRYANT. 

4 There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower, 
There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree, 
There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the 
flower, 
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the 
sea. 



5 And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles 
On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray. 
On the leaping waters and gay young isles ; 
Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away. 



1. "What does the first line do ? 

2. "What kind of a question ? 

A. It is an interrogative affirmation. It affirms that 
it is not a time to be sad. 

3. Why is it not a time to be sad ? What three reasons 
are given in the stanza ? 

4. "What is the meaning of cloudy in the first line ? 

5. What figure in the second line? 

6. What figure in the third line ? 

7. What figure in the fourth line ? 

8. Which case of personification is the strongest ? 

9. What does the poet proceed to do in the remaining 
stanzas of the poem ? 

10. How many mental images are awakened by the 
second stanza? 

11. What is meant by gossij:) ? 

12. Did you ever hear the ground squirrel chirp f 

13. ^h-Sit is TUQSiiit \>j loilding f 



THE GLADNESS OF NATURE. 67 

14. Is it authorized in prose ? 

15. "What does the next stanza describe? 

16. What is mentioned in the first line ? 

17. What in the second? 

18. What relation have the third and fourth lines to the 
first line? 

19. What figure in the first line? 

20. What in the second line? 

21. Why is stretch used ? 

22. What kind of wind is indicated in this line ? 

23. What kind is mentioned in the next line ? 

24. What figure do you .find in the first Une of the 
fourth stanza ? 

25. What in the second ? 

26. What in the third ? 

27. What in the fourth ? 

28. What is expressed by dance f 

29. What is expressed by titter? 

30. What is expressed by laugh f 

31. What is the office of the first line of the next stanza ? 

32. What terms indicate the personification? 

33. What is mentioned in the second line? 

34. What in the third line? 

35. With what is the fourth line connected ? 

36. By what relation? 
A. That of consequence. 



THE THIRD OF NOVEMBER, 1861. 

1 Softly breathes the west-wmd beside the ruddy 

forest, 
Taking leaf by leaf from the branches where 

he flies. 
Sweetly streams the snn shine, this third day of 

November, 
Through the golden haze of the quiet autumn 

skies. 

2 Tenderly the season has spared the grassy mead- 

ows, 
SpaTed the petted flowers that the old world 

gave the new, 
Spared the autumn-rose and the garden's group 

of pansier; 
Late-blown dandelixDns and periwinkles blue. 

3 On my cornice linger the ripe black grapes un- 

gathered ; 
Children fill the groves with tl^^ echoes of 
their glee, 



THE THIRD OF NOVEMBER, 1861. 69 

Gathering tawny chestnuts, and shouting when 
beside them 
Drops the heavy fruit of the tall black-wal- 
nut tree. 

4 Glorious are the woods m their latest gold and 

crimson, 

Yet our full-leaved willows are in their fresh- 
est green. 
Such a kindly autumn, so mercifully dealing 

"With the growths of summer, I never yet 
have seen. 

5 Like this kindly season, may life's decline come 

o'er me ; 

Past is manhood's summer, the frosty months 
are here ; 
Yet be genial airs and a pleasant sunshine left 
me. 

Leaf, and fruit, and blossom, to mark the clos- 
ing year. 

6 Dreary is the time when the flowers of earth 

are withered ; 

Dreary is the time when the woodland leaves 
are cast. 
When, upon the hillside, all hardened into irbn, 

Howling, like a wolf, flies the famished north- 
ern blast. 



70 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

7 Dreary are the years when the eye can look no 
longer 
With delight on natnre, or hope on human 
kind; 
Oh, may those that whiten my temples, as they 
pass me. 
Leave the heart unfrozen, and spare the cheer- 
ful mind ! 



1. What statement is made in the first line ? 

2. What is the relation of the second line to the first ? 

3. What is asserted in the third and fourth lines of this 
stanza? 

4. Why not say talcing the leaves, instead of leaf ly 
leaf? 

5. Is flies in keeping with the conception awaked by 
softly l)reathes ? 

6. What figure in the first line? 
Y. Is sunshine used figuratively? 

8. Why is sweetly better than Irightly ? 

9. What is the office of the first line of the second 
stanza ? 

10. What relation have the three following lines to the 
first line ? 

11. What is meant by sparing the grassy meadows? 

12. What flowers are mentioned in the second line ? 

13. How many mental images does the stanza awaken 
in the mind ? 

14. What is stated in the first line of the third stanza ? 

15. What personification in the line? 

16. What is stated in the second line? 



THE THIRD OF NOVEMBER, 186;. 71 

17. Wliat connection have the third and fourth lines 
with the second line ? 

18. Why is tawny used? 

19. Translate the first line of the fourth stanza into 
literal language. 

20. What is the office of yetf 

21. Why not use and ? 

22. What do the last two lines do ? 

23. What figure in the third line ? 

24. What is meant by the growtJis of summer? 

25. What is the office of the first line in the fifth stanza? 

26. What simile does it contain ? 

27. What does the second line do ? 

28. Point out the figures in this line. 

29. What do the last two lines express? 

30. Are these two lines wholly figurative ? 

31. Translate them into literal language. 

32. What does the sixth stanza consist of? 

33. What is the first statement? 

34. What is the second ? 

35. What relation have the last two lines of the stanza 
to the preceding ones ? 

36. Point out the figures in the third and fourth hnes. 

37. What relation have the first two lines of the seventh 
stanza to the sixth ? 

38. What do the last two lines express ? 

39. Translate them into literal language. 



SUMMER WIND. 

It is a sultry day ; the sun has drunk 
The dew that lay upon the morning grass ; 
There is no rustling in the lofty elm 
That canopies my dwelling, and its shade 

5 Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint 
And interrupted murmur of the bee, 
Settling on the sick flowers, and then again 
Instantly on the wing. The plants around 
Feel the too potent fervors : the tall maize 

10 Rolls up its long green leaves; the clover 
droops 
Its tender foliage, and declines its blooms. 
But far in the fierce sunshine tower the hills. 
With all their growth of woods, silent and 

stern, 
As if the scorching heat and dazzling light 

15 Were but an element they loved. Bright 
clouds. 
Motionless pillars of the brazen heaven,-— 



SUMMER WIND. 73 

Their bases on the moimtains — their white tops 
Shining in the far ether — fire the air 
"With a reflected radiance, and make turn 

20 The gazer's eye away. For me, I lie 

Languidly in the shade, where the thick turf. 
Yet virgin from the kisses of the sun. 
Retains some freshness, and I woo the wind 
That still delays his coming. Why so slow, 

25 Gentle and voluble spirit of the air ? 

Oh, come and breathe upon the fainting earth 
Coolness and life. Is it that in his caves 
He hears me ? See, on yonder woody ridge, 
The pine is bending his proud top, and now 

30 Among the nearer groves, chestnut and oak 
Are tossing their green boughs about. He 

comes, 
Lo, where the grassy meadow runs in waves ! 
The deep distressful silence of the scene 
Breaks np with mingling of unnumbered 
sounds 

35 And universal motion. He is come. 

Shaking a shower of blossoms from the shrubs, 
And bearing on their fragrance; and he 

brings 
Music of birds, and rustling of young boughs. 
And sound of swaying branches, and the 
voice 

40 Of distant waterfalls. All the green herbs 
Are stirring in his breath ; a thousand flowers, 

r 



74 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

By the road-side and the borders of the brook, 
Nod gayly to each other ; glossy leaves 
Are twinkling in the sun, as if the dew 
45 Were on them yet, and silver waters break 
Into small waves and sparkle as he comes. 



1. "What is the first clause ? 

2. What relation has the remainder of the sentence to 
this statement ? 

3. What is the first thing mentioned as explanatory ? 

4. What is the second thing mentioned ? 

5. What is the third thing ? 

6. Is the first clause figurative or literal ? 

7. What figure in the next clause ? 

8. What is meant h j morning grass f 

9. Is the next clause figurative ? 

10. What is meant by ca?ioj9ies? 

11. How many mental images are produced by this 
sentence? 

12. What is the office of the next sentence? 

13. What is the statement? 

14. What is the exception to it ? 

15. Why interrupted murmur f 

16. Why are the flowers called sicTc flowers? 

17. What is the office of the flrst clause of the next 
sentence ? 

18. What relation to it have the two following clauses? 

19. Are the statements about the maize and the clover 
correct ? 

20. What distinction is stated respecting the effect of 
the heat on i\iQ, foliage and the ilooms of the clover ? 



SUMMER WIND. 75 

21. "Would it be proper to use, in prose, hlooms for 
Mossom f 

22. "What is the office of the adversative tut f 

23. What mental image is produced by the sentence ? 

24. What effect do the words silent and stern have ? 

25. What other word indicates personification ? 

26. What is the subject, and what the predicate, of the 
next sentence ? 

27. What relation have motionless inllars to Iright 
clouds f 

28. Why is h^azen used ? 

29. What is the office of the next two phrases ? 

30. What is meant hj firing the ccirf 

31. How did they make the gazer turn away his 
eye? 

32. What mental image is produced by the next sen- 
tence ? 

33. What two statements are made? 

34. How is the first modified ? 

35. What is meant by yet virgin from the hisses of the 
sun? 

36. How is the second statement modified ? 

37. What is the next sentence ? 

38. What connection has it with the preceding sen- 
tence ? 

• 39. What is the meaning of voluble f 

40. What figure in this line ? 

41. What is the next sentence? 

42. What two things are personified in the sentence ? 

43. What is the next sentence ? 

44. What relation to it has the succeeding sentence ? 

45. Why does the writer speak of the pine as bending 
its top ? 

46. Why proud top ? 



76 STUDIES m BRYANT. 

47. What is the next indication of the coming of the 
wind ? 

48. What is the next ? 

49. What is meant bj the meadow's running in waves ? 

50. What is the next statement ? 

51. What is the office of the next sentence? 

52. Mention in order the things he does. 

53. Does the wind create the voice of the waterfalls f 

54. What relation has the next sentence to the pre- 
ceding one ? 

55. What personification in the first clause ? 

56. What personification in the second clause ? 

57. What comparison in the next clause ? 

58. What word is used metaphorically in the last part 
of the sentence ? 



THE FUTURE LIFE. 

1 How shall I know thee in the sphere which keeps 

The disembodied spirits of the dead, 
When all of thee that time could wither sleeps 
And perishes among the dust we tread ? 

2 For I shall feel the sting of ceaseless pain 

If there I meet thy gentle presence not ; 
ISTor hear the voice I love, nor read again 
In thy serenest eyes the tender thought. 

3 Will not thy own meek heart demand me there ? 

That heart whose fondest throbs to me were 
given ? 
My name on earth was ever in thy prayer, 
And wilt thou never utter it in heaven ? 

4 In meadows fanned by heaven's life-breathing 

wind, 
In the resplendence of that glorious sphere, 
And larger movements of the unfettered mind, 
Wilt thou forget the love that joined us here ? 



78 STUDIES m BRYANT. 

5 Tlie love that lived through all the stormy past. 

And meekly with my harsher nature bore, 
And deeper grew, and tenderer to the last. 
Shall it expire with life, and be lio more ? 

6 A happier lot than mine, and larger light, 

Await thee there ; for thou hast bowed thy will 
In cheerful homage to the rule of right. 
And lovest all, and renderest good for ill. 

7 For me, the sordid cares in which I dwell. 

Shrink and consume my heart, as heat the 
scroll ; 
And wrath has left its scar — that fire of hell 
Has left its frightful scar upon my soul. 

8 Yet though thou wear'st the glory of the sky, 

Wilt thou not keep the same beloved name, 
The same fair thoughtful brow, and gentle eye, 
Lovelier in heaven's sweet climate, yet the 
same ? 

9 Shalt thou not teach me, in that calmer home. 

The wisdom that I learned so ill in this — 
The wisdom which is love — till I become 
Thy fit companion in that land of bliss ? 



1. With what question does the poem open ? 

2. What is mentioned as being in the way of recogni- 
tion? 



THE FUTURE LIFE. 79 

3. The second stanza contains a condition and a conse- 
quence. What is the condition? 

4. What the consequence ? 

5. What relation have the third and fourth lines to the 
second line ? 

6. What part of the stanza is figurative ? 

7. What does the first line in the third stanza do ? 

8. What connection has the second line with the first? 

9. What do the third and fourth lines contain ? 

10. What place is described in the first two lines of the 
fourth stanza ? 

11. What does the third line refer to ? 

12. What question follows? 

13. With what word in this stanza is the next stanza 
connected ? 

14. What does the stanza describe? 

15. What question is asked ? 

16. What personification in the stanza? 

17. What statement is made at the beginning of the 
sixth stanza ? 

18. What reason is given for ttie statement? 

19. What does the seventh stanza consist of? 

20. What is the first statement ? 

21. Are sJirinTc and consume figurative or literal? 

22. What do they mean ? 

23. What comparison is made? 

24. What is the second statement? 

25. What figurative terms does it contain? 

26. What is meant by a scar upon the soul? 

27. What is meant by wearing the glory of the sTcy ? 

28. What question in the second line? 

29. What do you find in the third line? 

30. What is the office of the fourth line? 

31. What is contained in the last stanza? 

32. What is the poem characterized by? 



THE STREAM OF LIFE. 

1 Oh silvery streamlet of the fields, 

That flowest full and free ! 
For thee the rains of spring return, 

The summer dews for thee ; 
And when thy latest blossoms die 

In autumn's chilly showers. 
The winter fountains gush for thee, 

Till May brings back the flowers. 

2 Oh Stream of Life ! the violet springs 

But once beside thy bed ; 
But one brief summer, on thy path. 

The dews of heaven are shed. 
Thy parent fountains shrink away, 

And close their crystal veins. 
And where thy glittering current flowed 

The dust alone remains. 



1. What is addressed in the first line ? 

2. What is the office of tlie second line ? 

3. What do the two following lines contain! 



TEE STREAM OF LIFE. 81 

4. Tell what is tlie office of the four remaining lines of 
the stanza. 

5. Point out the figurative language of the stanza. 

6. What do you find at the beginning of the second 
stanza ? 

7. What assertion follows ? 

8. Change the metaphorical into literal language. 

9. Do the same with the next two lines. 

10. Translate the remaining lines of the stanza into 
literal language. 

11. What is the plan of the poem ? 



AN INVITATION TO THE COUNTRY. 

1 Already, close by our summer dwelling, 

The Easter sparrow repeats lier song ; 
■ A merry warbler, she chides the blossoms — 
The idle blossoms that sleep so long. 

2 The bluebird chants, from the elm's long 

branches, 
A hymn to welcome the budding year. 
The south wind wanders from field to forest, 
And softly whispers, " The Spring is here.*' 

3 Come, daughter mine, from the gloomy city. 

Before those lays from the elm have ceased ; 
The violet breathes, by our door, as sweetly 
As in the air of her native East. 

4 Though many a flower in the wood is waking, 

The daffodil is our doorside queen ; 
She pushes upward the sward already. 
To spot with sunshine the early green. 



AN INVITATION TO THE COUNTRY. 83 

5 Xo lays so joyous as these are warbled 

From wiry prison in maiden's bower; 
No pampered bloom of the greenhouse 
chamber 
Has half the charm of the lawn's first flower. 

6 Yet these sweet sounds of the early season, 

And these fair sights of its sunny days 
Are only sweet when we fondly listen. 
And only fair when we fondly gaze. 

7 There is no glory in star or blossom 

Till looked upon by a loving eye ; 
There- is no fragrance in April breezes 
Till breathed with joy as they wander by. 

8 Come, Julia dear, for the sprouting willows. 

The opening flowers, and the gleaming 
brooks. 
And hollows, green in the sun, are waiting 
Their dower of beauty from thy glad looks. 



1. Of what does the first stanza consist? 

2. What does already express ? 

3. What does the phrase in the first line express ? 

4. Why is Easter used ? 

5. Why is repeats used ? 

6. What does the phrase beginning the third hne de- 
scribe ? 

7. What is she represented as doing? 



84 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

8. What relation has the fourth line to the third? 

9. Of what does the second stanza consist ? 

10. What two statements are made? 

11. Why are long branches mentioned? 

12. Is hymn figurative or literal ? 

13. What figure is in the second statement ? 

14. What words indicate the personification ? 

15. What does the first line of the third stanza contain? 

16. Why is gloomy used ? 

17. What do the remaining three lines contain ? 
A. Seasons for accepting the invitation. 

18. Why is the expression native East used ? 

19. What is meant by a flower's waking ? 

20. What figure is used in the first line ? 

21. What figure is used in the second line? 

22. Why is the daffodil said to push up the sward? 

23. What is the meaning of the fourth line ? 

24. What does the fifth stanza affirm ? 

25. What is meant by wiry prison ? 

26. What is meant by pampered Moom f 

27. What does the sixth stanza affirm ? 

28. To what line in the stanza does the third line relate ? 

29. To what the fourth ? 

30. What is the condition of seeing glory in star or 
blossom ? 

31. What is the condition of perceiving the fragrance 
of the breeze ? 

32. What figure is in the fourth line ? 

33. Of what does the last stanza consist ? 

A. Of a request and the reason for complying with it. 

34. What is the reason ? 

35. What is meant by the last line ? 

36. What is the connection between this stanza and the 
seventh ? 



THE CROWDED STREET. 

1 Let me move slowly through the street. 

Filled with an ever-shifting train, 
Amid the somid of steps that beat 

The murmuring walks like autumn rain. 

2 How fast the flitting figures come ! 

The mild, the fierce, the stony face ; 
Some bright with thoughtless smiles, and some 
Where secret tears have left their trace. 

3 They pass — to toil, to strife, to rest ; 

To halls in which the feast is spread ; 
To chambers where the funeral guest 
In silence sits beside the dead. 

4 And some to happy homes repair. 

Where children, pressmg cheek to cheek, 
With mute caresses shall declare 
The tenderness they cannot speak. 

5 And some, who walk in. calmness here. 

Shall shudder as they reach the door 
Where one who made their dwelling dear. 
Its flower, its light, is seen no more. 



86 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

6 Youth, with pale cheek and slender frame, 

And dreams of greatness in thine eye ! 
Go'st thou to build an early name. 
Or early in the task to die ? 

7 Keen son of trade, with eager brow ! 

Who is now fluttering in thy snare ? 

Thy golden fortunes, tower they now, 

Or melt the glittering spires in air ? 

8 Who of this crowd to-night shall tread 

The dance till daylight gleam again ? 
Who sorrow o'er the untimely dead ? 
Who writhe in throes of mortal pain ? 

9 Some, famine-struck, shall think how long 

The cold dark hours, how slow the light ; 
And some, who flaunt amid the throng, 
Shall hide in dens of shame to-night. 

10 Each, where his tasks or pleasures call, 

They pass, and heed each other not. 
There is who heeds, who holds them all. 
In his large love and boundless thought. 

11 These struggling tides of life that seem 

In wayward, aimless course to tend. 
Are eddies of the mighty stream 
That rolls to its appointed end. 



THE CROWDED STREET. 87 

1. What remark is in the first hne ? 

2. What is the otRce of the second line? 

3. Why is ever-shifting better than ever-passing? 

4. With what is the first part of the third line con- 
nected in thought ? 

5. What is the office of the remaining part of the 
stanza? 

6. Why does the poet describe the walks as mur- 
muring f 

7. What is the first line of the second stanza? 

8. What relation has the second line to the first? 

9. What is the office of the next two lines ? 

10. What does the third stanza do ? 

11. What two mental images are produced? 

12. What does the fourth stanza do? or, of what is the 
fourth stanza a continuation ? 

13. What image does it awaken ? 

14. What does the fifth stanza describe ? 

15. Of what does the sixth stanza consist? 

16. What do the first two lines describe? 

17. What two questions are asked ? 

18. Who is addressed in the next stanza ? 

19. What is the office of the second phrase in the first 
line? 

20. What is the meaning of the first question ? 

21. What two questions are asked in the last two lines? 

22. Is the language figurative or literal? 

23. What conception had the poet in his mind when he 
spoke of a fortune's toioering f 

24. Why are glittering spires spoken of? 

25. Of what does the eighth stanza consist? 

26. What three classes of persons are alluded to ? 

27. What is the force of the word untimely ? 

28. Of what is the ninth stanza composed ? 



88 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

29. What is the first statement ? 

30. What is the second statement ? 

31. What is the term Jlaunt used to express? 

32. Of how many statements is the next stanza com- 
posed ? 

33. What is the first ? * 

34. What is the second statement ? 

35. Who is referred to in the second statement? 

36. Of what does the last stanza consist ? 

37. What is the meaning of the statement ? 



THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS. 

1 The melanclioly days are come, the saddest of 

the year, 

Of wailmg winds, and. naked woods, and mead- 
ows brown and sere. 

Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autmnn 
leaves lie dead ; 

They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rab- 
bit's tread. 

The robin and the wren are flown, and from the 
shrubs the jay. 

And from the wood-top calls the crow through 
all the gloomy day. 

2 Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, 

that lately sprang and stood 
In brighter light, and softer airs, a beauteous 

sisterhood ? 
Alas ! they all are in their graves, the gentle 

race of flowers 
Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and 

good of ours. 



90 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold 

November rain 
Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely 

ones again. 

3 The wind-flower and the violet, they perished 

long ago. 
And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the 

summer glow ; 
But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in 

the wood. 
And the yellow suniiower by the brook in 

autumn beauty stood. 
Till fell the frost from the clear, cold heaven, as 

falls the plague on men, 
And the brightness of their smile was gone, 

from upland, glade, and glen. 

4 And now, when comes the calm, mild day, as 

still such days will come, 
To call the squirrel and the bee from out their 

winter home ; 
When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, 

though all the trees are still, 
And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of 

the rill, 
The south wind searches for the flowers whose 

fragrance late he bore. 
And sighs to find them in the wood and by the 

stream no more. 



THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS. 91 

5 And then I think of one who in her youthful 

beauty died, 
The fair, meek blossom that grew up and faded 

by my side : 
In the cold, moist earth we laid her, when the 

forests east the leaf. 
And we wept that one so lovely should have a 

life so brief : 
Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young 

friend of ours, 
So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with 

the flowers. 



1. Wliat do you first meet with in this poem ? 

2. What relation has the last half of the first line to 
the first half? 

3. What is the office of the second line? 

4. What relation has the third line to the first clause of 
the stanza? 

5. What relation has the fourth line to the third? 

6. Why is the word eddying used ? 

7. What is the office of the fifth and sixth lines? 

8. Why are shrills mentioned in connection with the 

9. What do the first two lines of the second stanza do?* 

10. With what are the phrases in the second line con- 
nected ? 

11. To what does a leauteous sisterliood relate? 

12. What do the third and fourth lines do? 

13. What relation has the second statement to the first? 



92 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

14. What figure do you find in these lines ? 

15. What is the office of the fifth and sixth lines ? 

16. What is the office of lut ? 

17. Is rain personified ? 

18. Is earth personified ? 

19. Of what is the third stanza a continuation ? 

20. Which are the most striking lines in this stanza ? 

21. What figure is in these lines ? 

22. What is the difi'erence between glade and glen f 

23. What does the fourth stanza do ? 

24. What poetical incidents are mentioned ? 

25. What hold personification in this stanza? 

26. What is the wind represented as doing? 
27". What is the office of the sixth stanza ? 

28. What is the analogy ? 

29. What relation has the second line to the first ? 

30. What relation has the last part of the third line to 
the first part ? 

31. What is the office of the fourth line? 

32. What is the office of the last two lines ? 

33. Point out the most beautiful lines in the poem. 



THE RETURN OF YOUTH. 

1 My friend, thou sorrowest for thy golden prime, 
For thy fair youthful years too swift of flight ; 
Thou musest, with wet eyes, upon the time 
Of cheerful hopes that filled the world with 
light,- 
Years when thy heart was bold, thy hand was 
. strong, 
And quick the thought that moved thy 
tongue to speak, 
And willing faith was thine, and scorn of wrong 
Summoned the sudden crimson to thy cheek. 



2 Thou lookest forward on the coming days. 

Shuddering to feel their shadow o'er thee 
creep ; 
A path, thick-set with changes and decays. 
Slopes downward to the place of common 
sleep ; 



94 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

And they who walked with thee in life's first 
stage, 

Leave one by one thy side, and, waiting near, 
Thon seest the sad companions of thy age — 

Dull love of rest, and weariness and fear. 



3 Yet grieve thou not, nor think thy youth is 
gone, 
Nor deem that glorious season e'er could die. 
Thy pleasant youth, a little while withdrawn. 

Waits on the horizon of a brighter sky ; 
Waits, like the morn, that folds her wing and 
hides, 
Till the slow stars bring back her dawning 
hour; 
Waits, like the vanished spring, that slumbering 
bides 
Her own sweet time to waken bud and 
ilower. 



4 There shall he welcome thee, when thou shalt 
stand 
On his bright morning hills, with smiles more 
sweet 
Than when at first he took thee by the hand. 
Through the fair earth to lead thy tender 
feet. 



THE RETURN OF YOUTH. 95 

He shall bring back, but brighter, broader still, 

Life's early glory to thine eyes again, 
Shall clothe thy spirit with new strength, and 
fill 
Thy leaping heart with warmer love than 
then. 

Hast thou not glimpses, in the twilight here. 

Of mountains where immortal morn prevails ? 
Comes there not, through the silence, to thine 
ear 

A gentle rustling of the morning gales ; 
A murmur, wafted from that glorious shore, 

Of streams that water banks forever fair. 
And voices of the loved ones gone before. 

More musical in that celestial air ? 



1. What is the first line ? 

2. What relation has the second line to the first ? 

3. What statement in the third and fourth lines ? 

4. What is the ofiice of the phrase in the third line ? 

5. What is the office of the clause in the latter part of 
the fourth line ? 

6. What is the office of the remaining lines of the 
stanza ? 

7. What facts are mentioned in the description of those 
? 

8. What is meant by willing faith ? 

9. What is the act described in the last line ? 



96 STUDIES m BRYANT. 

10. "What is the meaning of the second line in the second 
stanza ? 

11. What is the office of the next two lines? 

12. Is the language figurative, or literal? 

13. What is meant hj common slee;p f 

14. Who are meant in the next line ? 

15. What is meant hj leaving thy side? 

16. To what does '^co^^^^?^p' ?iear belong? 

17. What are called companions of age? and why? 

18. What is the office of the third stanza? 

19. What reasons are given for not grieving? 

20. What personification is in the third and fourth lines? 

21. What implied comparison ? 

22. What expressed comparison is there in the next 
line? 

23. Is morn personified? 

24. How does it appear ? 

25. What implied comparison is there in folds her 
wing f 

26. Point out the comparison in the seventh line. 

27. What is the point of comparison ? 

28. What word indicates personification? 

29. What is the office of the fourth stanza ? 

30. What is the subject ? 

31. What is meant by standing on his dright hills f 

32. What is the force of the word morning f 

33. What is meant by the remaining parts of the sen- 
tence ? 

34. What is meant by the fifth and sixth lines? 

35. What do the first two lines of the fifth stanza do ? 

36. What is the meaning of the question? 

37. What is the meaning of the twilight here f 

38. What other question is there in the stanza ? 

39. What is the meaning of the question ? 



THE HURRICANE. 

1 LoED of tlie winds ! I feel tliee nigh, 
I know tliy breath in the burning sky ! 
And I wait, with a thrill in every vein. 
For the coming of the hurricane ! 

2 And lo ! on the wing of the heavy gales, 
Through the boundless arch of heaven he sails ; 
Silent and slow, and terribly strong. 

The mighty shadow is borne along. 

Like the dark eternity to come ; 

While the world below, dismayed and dumb, 

Through the calm of the thick hot atmosphere 

Looks up at its gloomy folds with fear. 

3 They darken fast ; and the golden blaze 
Of the sun is quenched in the lurid haze. 
And he sends through the shade a funeral ray — 
A glare that is neither night nor day, 

A beam that touches, with hues of death. 
The clouds above and the earth beneath. 



98 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

To its covert glides tlie silent bird, 
Wliile tlie liuiTicane's distant voice is heard 
Uplifted among tlie mountains round, 
And tlie forests hear and answer the sound. 



4 He is come ! he is come ! do ye not behold 
His ample robes on the wind unrolled ? 
Giant of air ! we bid thee hail ! — 
How his gray skirts toss in the whirling gale ; 
How his huge and writhing arms are bent, 
To clasp the zone of the firmament. 
And fold at length, in their dark embrace, 
From mountain to mountain the visible space. 

6 Darker — still darker ! the whirlwinds bear 
The dust of the plains to the middle air : 
And hark to the crashing, long and loud, 
Of the chariot of God in the thunder-cloud ! 
You may trace its path by the flashes that start 
From the rapid wheels where'er they dart. 
As the fire-bolts leap to the world below. 
And flood the skies with a lurid glow. 

6 What roar is that ? — 'tis the rain that breaks 
In torrents away from the airy lakes, 
Heavily poured on the shuddering ground, 
And shedding a nameless horror round. 



THE HURRICANE. 99 

All! well-known woods, and mountains, and 

skies. 
With the very clouds ! — ^ye are lost to my eyes. 
I seek ye vainly, and see in your place 
The shadowy tempest that sweeps through 

space, 
A whirling ocean that fills the wall 
Of the crystal heaven, and buries all. 
And I, cut off from the world, remain 
Alone with the terrible hurricane. 



1. What is the first phrase? 

2. What is the first statement in the first paragraph ? 

3. What is the second? 

4. What is the third? 

5. How is the third modified ? 

6. What is the office of the second paragraph ? 
A. To describe the coming of the hurricane. 

7. What do the first and second lines tell ? 

8. What do the third and fourth lines tell? 

9. What figure is in the fifth line ? 

10. What is the ofiice of the next three lines? 
A. To describe the efi'ect on the earth. 

11. What figure is in the sixth line ? 

12. What words show the personification? 

13. Why does the writer say thich Tiot atmosphere ? 

A. Because such an atmosphere precedes the hurricane. 

14. To what does gloomy folds refer? 

15. What is the oflSce of the third paragraph ? 



100 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

A. To continue tlie description of the hurricane's ap- 
proach. 

16. To what does they refer ? 

IV. What relation has the second clause to the first ? 

18. What figure is in the third line? 

19. What relation have the fourth, fifth, and sixth lines 
to the third ? 

20. What is meant by the Tiues of death f 

21. What is the seventh fine ? 

22. What relation have the eighth and ninth lines to the 
seventh ? 

23. What figure in the tenth line? 

24. What is the office of the fourth paragraph ? 
A. To describe the presence of the hurricane. 

25. Under what form does the poet describe it? 

26. What is meant by robes ? 

27. What is meant by sTcirts and arms ? 

28. Why is writhing used ? 

29. What personification is imphed by the use of the 
word zone ? 

30. What is meant by the last two lines of the para- 
graph ? 

81. What is the office of the fifth paragraph ? 
A. To continue the description. 

32. What is the general efi'ect stated in the first 
phrase ? 

33. What is the first thing mentioned ? 

34. What is the next ? 

35. How may the cliariofs path be traced? 

36. What do the first three lines of the sixth paragraph 
describe ? 

37. What is meant by airy laTces f 

38. What relation has the fourth line to the preceding 
lines ? 



THE HURRICANE. iQl 

89. What is the next effect stated ? 

40. What is seen in their place ? 

41. What relation has the ninth line to the eighth ? 

42. What is meant hj fills the loall of heaven ? 

43. What was the effect on the poet ? 



THE LIFE THAT IS. 

1 Thou, who so long hast pressed the couch of 

pain, 
Oh welcome, welcome back to life's free 

breath — 
To life's free breath and day's sweet light again, 
From the chill shadows of the gate of death. 

2 For thou hadst reached the twilight bound be- 

tween 
The world of spirits and this grosser sphere ; 
Dimly by thee the things of earth were seen. 
And faintly fell earth's voices on thine ear. 

3 . And now, how gladly we behold, at last. 
The wonted smile returning to thy brow ; 
The very wind's low whisper, breathing past. 
In the light leaves, is music to thee now. 

4 Thou wert not weary of thy lot ; the earth 
Was ever good and pleasant in thy sight ; 
Still clung thy loves about the household hearth, 
And sweet was every day's returning light. 



THE LIFE THAT IS. 103 

5 Then welcome back to all thou woiildst not 

leave, 
To this grand march of seasons, days, and 
hours. 
The glory of the morn, the glow of eve, 
The beauty of the streams, and stars, and 
flowers. 

6 To eyes on which thine own delight to rest ; 

To voices which it is thy joy to hear ; 
To the kind toils that ever pleased thee best, 
The willing tasks of love, that made life dear. 

7 Welcome to grasp of friendly hands ; to prayers 

Offered where crowds in reverent worship 
come. 
Or softly breathed amid the tender cares 
And loving inmates of thy quiet home. 

8 Thou bring' st no tidings of the better land. 

Even from its verge ; the mysteries opened 
there 
Are what the faithful heart may understand 
In ij;s still depths, yet words may not declare, 

9 xA.nd well I deem, that, from the brighter side 

Of life's dim border, some o'erflowing rays 
Streamed from the inner glory, shall abide 
Upon thy spirit through the coming days. 



104 STUDIES m BRYANT. 

10 Twice wert thou given me ; once in thy fair 

prime, 
Fresh from the fields of youth, when first 

we met, 
And all the blossoms of that hopeful time 
Clustered and glowed where'er thy steps 

were set ; 

11 And now, in thy ripe autumn, once again 

Given back to fervent prayers and yearnings 

strong, 
From the drear realm of sickness and of pain^ 
When we had watched, and feared, and 

trembled long. 

12 Now may we keep thee from the balmy air 

And radiant walks of heaven a little space, 
Where He, who went before thee to prepare 
For His meek followers, shall assign thy 
place. 



1. What does the first stanza do? ^ 

2. To whom, and from what, is the welcome given ? 

3. What relation has the second stanza to the first? 

4. What is the meaning of the first two lines of this 
stanza ? 

5. What relation have the last two lines to the first two ? 

6. What is the office of the third stanza ? 



THE LIFE THAT IS. 



105 



7. What is the first clause of the fourth stanza ? 

8. What relation has the remainder of the stanza to 
that clause ? 

9. What is the office of the fifth stanza ? 

10. What connection has it with the fourth? 

11. How many poetic images are awakened by the 
stanza ? 

12. What connection has the sixth stanza with the fifth? 
A. It is a continuation of the thought. 

13. How many things are mentioned? 

14. What relation has the fourth line to the third ? 

15. To what is the person addressed i^elcomed in the 
seventh stanza ? 

16. What two kinds of prayer are mentioned ? 

17. What does the eighth stanza contain? 

18. What is said of the mysteries ? 

19. What statement does the ninth stanza contain? 

20. Is it figurative ? 

21. State the thoughts in literal language. 

22. What statements does the tenth stanza contain ? 

23. What is meant hj fresh from the fields of youth? 

24. What is the office of the last two lines ? 

25. What is meant by Uossoms clustering ? 

26. What is meant by ripe autumn? 

27. What is the office of the twelfth stanza? 

28. What is the allusion in the last two lines ? 



A HYMN OF THE SEA. 

The sea is mighty, but a mightier sways 
His restless billows. Thou, whose hands have 

scooped 
His boundless gnlfs and bnilt his shore, thy 

breath, 
That moved in the beginning o'er his face, 
5 Moves o'er it evermore. The obedient waves 
To its strong motion roll, and rise and fall. 
Still from that realm of rain thy cloud goes up, 
As at the first, to water the great earth. 
And keep her valleys green. A hundred 
realms 
10 Watch its broad shadow warping on the wind. 
And in the dropping shower, with gladness 

hear 
Thy promise of the harvest. I look forth 
Over the boundless blue, where joyously 
The bright crests of innumerable waves 
15 Glance to the sun at once, as when the hands 
Of a great multitude are upward flung 



A HYMN OF THE SEA. 107 

In acclamation. I behold the ships 
Gliding from cape to cape, from isle to isle, 
Or stemming toward far lands, or hastening 

home 
20 From the old world. It is tliy friendly breeze 
That bears them, with the riches of the land. 
And treasure of dear lives, till, in the port, 
The shouting seaman climbs and furls the sail- 
But who shall bide thy tempest, who shall 

face 
25 The blast that wakes the fury of the sea ? 
O God ! thy justice makes the world turn pale, 
When on the armed fleet, that royally 
Bears down the surges, carrying war, to smite 
Some city, or invade 'some thoughtless realm, 
30 Descends the fierce tornado. The vast hulks 
Are whirled like chaff upon the waves ; the 

sails 
Fly, rent like webs of gossamer ; the masts 
Are snapped asunder ; downward from the 

decks, 
Downward are slung, into the fathomless gulf, 
35 Their cruel engines ; and their hosts, arrayed 
In trappings of the battle-field, are whelmed 
By whirlpools, or dashed dead upon the rocks. 
Then stand the nations still with awe, and 

pause, 
A moment, from the bloody work of war. 



108 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

40 These restless surges eat away the shores 
Of earth's old continents ; the fertile plain 
Welters in shallows, headlands crumble down, 
And the tide drifts the sea-sand in the streets 
Of the drowned city. Thou, meanwhile, afar 

45 In the green chambers of the middle sea. 
Where broadest spread the waters and the line 
Sinks deepest, while no eye beholds thy work, 
Creator ! thou dost teach the coral worm 
To lay his mighty reefs. From age to age, 

50 He builds beneath the waters, till, at last. 
His bulwarks overtop the brine, and check 
The long wave rolling from the southern pole 
To break upon Japan. Thou bidd'st the fii^es, 
That smoulder under ocean, heave on high 

55 The new-made mountains, and uplift their 
peaks, 
A place of refuge for the storm-driven bird. 
The birds and wafting billows plant the rifts 
With herb and tree ; sweet fountains gush ; 

sweet airs 
Ripple the living lakes that, fringed with 
flowers, 

60 Are gathered in the hollows. Thou dost look 
On thy creation and pronounce it good. 
Its valleys, glorious with their summer green, 
Praise thee in silent beauty, and its woods. 
Swept by the murmuring winds of ocean, join 

65 The murmuring shores in a perpetual hymn. 



A HYMN OF THE SEA. 109 

1. What is the first clause ? 

2. What is the use of hut f 

3. What does thou, in the second sentence, refer tol 

4. What is the office of the clause following thou ? 

5. Of what verb is 'breath the subject? 

6. What is the oflSce of the clause following Ireath f 

7. What does the succeeding sentence describe ? 

8. What does the next sentence contain ? 

9. What relation has the next sentence to this ? 

10. What two things are stated in this sentence? 

11. What is the office of the next sentence? 

12. What personification and what comparison in the 
sentence ? 

13. What is the office of the succeeding sentence ? 

14. What relation has the next sentence to this ? 

15. What does the next sentence do ? 

16. What is the following sentence ? 

17. What is meant by thoughtless realm ? 

18. AVhat is the office of the next sentence ? 

19. What is meant by hulTcsf 

20. What two comparisons in the first two clauses of 
this sentence ? 

21. State the objects mentioned in the description. 

22. What is meant by cruel engines ? 

23. What is meant by trappings of the lattle-Jield ? 

24. What relation has the following sentence to this ? 

25. What does the next sentence describe ? 

26. What is the office of the next sentence? 

27. What does the next sentence describe ? 

28. What is the office of the next sentence ? 

29. What consequences are mentioned as following the 
upheaval ? 

30. What statement in the next sentence ? 

31. What relation has the following sentence to it? 

10 



110 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

32. What are tliemZ%s said to do? 

33. What is the office of the phrase following valleys f 

34. What is the office of the phrase following woods f 

35. What union is spoken of? 

36. Why is the hymn said to \)Q perpetual? 

37. Do the winds always blow ? 

38. To what must reference be had in the use of per- 
petual? 



HYMN TO THE NORTH STAR. 

The sad and solemn night 
Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires ; 

The glorious host of light 
"Walk the dark hemisphere till she retires ; 
All through her silent watches, gliding slow. 
Her constellations come, and climb the heavens, 
and go. 

Day, too, hath many a star 
To grace his gorgeous reign, as bright as they ; 

Through the blue fields afar. 
Unseen, they follow in his flaming way : 
Many a bright lingerer, as the eve grows dim. 
Tells what a radiant troop arose and set with him. 

And thou dost see them rise. 
Star of the Pole ! and thou dost see them set. 

Alone, in thy cold skies. 
Thou keep'st thy old unmoving station yet. 
Nor join'st the dances of that glittering train, 
Nor dipp'st thy virgin orb in the blue western 
main. 



112 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

4 There, at morn's rosy birth, 

Thou lookest meekly through the kindling air, 

And eve, that round the earth 
Chases the day, beholds thee watching there ; 
There noontide finds thee, and the hour that calls 
The shapes of polar flame to scale heaven's azure 
walls. 

5 Alike, beneath thine eye, 

The deeds of darkness and of light are done ; 

High towards \h.Q starlit sky 
Towns blaze, the smoke of battle blots the sun. 
The night-storm on a thousand hills is loud. 
And the strong wind of day doth mingle sea 
and cloud. 

6 On thy unaltering blaze 

The half -wrecked mariner, his compass lost, 

Fixes his steady gaze. 
And steers, undoubting, to the friendly coast ; 
And they who stray in perilous wastes, by night. 
Are glad when thou dost shine to guide their 
footsteps right. 

7 And, therefore, bards of old, 
Sages and hermits of the solemn wood, 

Did in thy beams behold 
* A beauteous type of that unchanging good, 
That bright eternal beacon, by whose ray 
The voyager of time should shape his heedful way. 



HYMN TO THE NORTH STAR. 113 

1. "Why is the niglit called sad and solemn ? 

2. What is meant by hQv fires f 

3. What are personified in the third line ? 

4. What relation have the third and fourth lines to the 
first and second ? 

5. What is meant by darTc Tiemisphere f 

6. What is meant by she retires ? 

7. What relation have the fifth and sixth lines to the 
fourth ? 

8. Why is clhnd used ? 

9. What is said in the first four lines of the second 
stanza ? 

10. 'Why is gorgeous nsed'^. 

11. How do the stars follow ? 

12. Why are the words flaming tcay used? 

13. What is asserted in the last two lines? 

14. What is meant by eve grows dim ? 

15. What figures are used in the last two lines ? 

16. What is addressed in the third stanza? 
IT. Why is alone used ? 

18. y^hj cold skies? 

10. What relation has the fifth to the fourth line? 

20. What is meant by dipping thy orh? 

21. What does the fourth stanza describe? 

22. What is the meaning of morn^s rosy Mrth ? 

23. Why is kindling air used ? 

24. What striking figure in the third and fourth 
lines ? 

25. What time is mentioned besides morning^ noon, and 
eve ? 

26. To what is allusion made in the last line? 

27. What assertion is in the first two lines of the fifth 
stanza ? 

28. What is meant by deeds of light f 



114 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

29. "Which kind of deeds are mentioned in the remain- 
ing lines of the stanza? 

30. What is the office of the sixth stanza ? 

31. What consequence is deduced from the facts stated 
in this stanza ? 

32. What is meant by hermits of the solemn wood? 

33. What is meant by eternal leacon ? 

34. "What is a 'ooyager of time f 

35. Why does the poet say heedful way ? 



THE CLOUD ON THE WAY. 

See before us, in our journey, broods a mist 
upon the ground ; 

Thither leads the path we walk in, blending 
with that gloomy bound. 

Never eye hath pierced its shadows to the 
mystery they screen ; 

Those who once have passed within it never 
more on earth are seen. 
5 Now it seems to stoop beside us, now at seem- 
ing distance lowers. 

Leaving banks that tempt us onward bright 
with summer-green and flowers. 

Yet it blots the way forever ; there our jour- 
ney ends at last ; 

Into that dark cloud we enter, ^nd are gath- 
ered to the past. 

Thou who, in this flinty pathway, leading 
through a stranger land, 
10 Passest down the rocky valley, walking with 
me hand in hand. 



IIG STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

Which of us shall be the soonest folded to that 

dim Unknown ? 
Which shall leave the other walking in this 

flinty path alone ? 
Even now I see thee shudder, and thy cheek 

is white with fear, 
And thou clingest to my side as comes that 

darkness sweeping near. 
15 " Here," thou sayst, " the path is rugged, sown 

with thorns that wound the feet ; 
But the sheltered glens are lovely, and the 

rivulet's song is sweet ; 
Eoses breathe from tangled thickets; lilies 

bend from ledges brown ; 
Pleasantly between the pelting showers the 

sunshine gushes down ; 
Dear are those who walk beside us, they whose 

looks and voices make 
20 All this rugged region cheerful, till I love it 

for their sake. 
Far be yet the hour that takes me where that 

chilly shadow lies, 
From the things I know and love and from 

the sight of loving eyes." 
So thou murmurest, fearful one ; but see, we 

tread a rougher way ; 
Fainter glow the gleams of sunshine that upon 

the dark rocks play ; 



THE CLOUD ON THE WAY. 117 

25 Kude winds strew the faded flowers upon the 

crags o'er which we pass ; 
Banks of verdure, when we reach them, hiss 

with tiifts of withered grass. 
One by one w^e miss the voices w^hich we loved 

so well to hear ; 
One by one the kindly faces in that shadow 

disappear. 
Yet upon the mist before us fix thine eyes with 

closer view ; 
30 See, beneath its sullen skirts, the rosy morning 

glimmers through. 
One whose feet the thorns have wounded 

passed that barrier and came back, 
With a glory on His footsteps lighting yet the 

dreary track. 
Boldly enter where He entered ; all that seems 

but darkness here. 
When once thou hast passed beyond it, haply 

shall be crystal-clear. 
35 Viewed from that serener realm, the walks of 

human life may lie. 
Like the page of some familiar volume, open 

to thine eye ; 
Haply, from tlfe overhanging shadow, thou 

mayst stretch an unseen hand. 
To support the wavering steps that print with 

blood the rugged land. 



118 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

Haply, leaning o'er the pilgrim, all nnweeting 

thou art near, 
40 Thon mayst whisper words of warning or of 

comfort in his ear. 
Till, beyond the border where that brooding 

mystery bars the sight. 
Those whom thou hast fondly cherished stand 

with thee in peace and light. 



1. What is the first clause in the first line ? 
A. An address to a person. 

2. Is the remainder of the line figurative? 

3. What is meant by our journey ? 

4. What is meant by the mist Irooding? 

5. What figures do you find in this line ? 

6. Where is it afiBrmed that our path leads ? 

7. What else is aflSrmed of the 2^atTi f 

8. What is asserted in the third line ? 

9. What does its refer to ? 

10. Translate the line into literal language. 

11. What is meant by passing within it f 
13. What is asserted in the fifth line? 

13. What does it refer to ? 

14. Express literally the thought of the line. 

A, Sometimes death seems near, and sometimes it seems 
distant. ^ 

15. With what part of this line is the next line con- 
nected ? 

16. What is the meaning of the line ? 
A. Afifording a bright life in prospect. 

17. What is afiirmed in the seventh line ? 



THE CLOUD ON THE WAY. 119 

18. What does it refer to ? 

19. Give the thought in literal language. 

20. What is meant by entering into the darTc cloud ? 

21. Wherein does the latter part of this line differ from 
the first part ? 

22. What do you find in the ninth and tenth lines ? 

A. An address to the person who was walking with 
the poet. 

23. What figure is flinty pathway f 

24. What does it mean ? 

25. What is meant by stranger land ? 

26. Is rocTcy valley figurative ? 

27. What does it mean ? 

28. What does the next phrase tell ? 

29. Is it to be understood literally ? 

30. Explain it. 

31. What does the next line do ? 

32. What is the question ? 

33. Give the idea in literal language. 

34. y^hj IS folded wsqAI 

35. What figure in the twelfth line ? 

36. Is the next line figurative or literal ? 

37. What do you say of the following line ? 

38. What does that darkness refer to ? 

39. What is meant by rugged path ? 

40. What is figuratively described in the next three 
lines ? 

41. What is asserted in the nineteenth and twentieth 
lines ? 

42. What wish is expressed in the next two lines ? 

43. To what is the attention of the speaker called? 

44. What is meant by a rougher way ? 

45. Give in literal language the thoughts of the next 
three lines. 



120 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

46. What is asserted in the next two lines ? 

47. To what is attention next called ? 

48. What personification in the thirtieth line ? 

49. What is the meaning of sullen^ as here used ? 

50. What allusion in the next two lines ? 

51. What exhortation follows ? 

52. What reason is given ? 

53. What is the relation between the thirty-fifth and 
thirty-sixth lines and the thirty-fourth line? 

54. What suggestion is made in the thirty-seventh and 
thirty-eighth lines? What in the thirty-ninth and fortieth 
lines ? 

55. Translate the last two lines into literal language. 

56. What is characteristic of this poem ? 



"INNOCENT CHILD AND SNOW-WHITE 
FLOWER." 

1 Innocent child and snow-white flower ! 
Well are ye paired in your opening hour. 
Thus should the pure and the lovely meet, 
Stainless with stainless, and sweet with sweet. 

2 White as those leaves, just blown apart, 
Are the folds of thy own young heart ; 
Guilty passion and cankering care 
Never have left their traces there. 

3 Artless one ! though thou gazest i;ow 
O'er the white blossom with earnest brow. 
Soon will it tire thy childish eye ; 

Fair as it is, thou wilt throw it by. 

4 Throw it aside in thy weary hour. 
Throw to the ground the fair white flower ; 
Yet, as thy tender years depart. 

Keep that white and innocent heart. 
11 



122 STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

1. What statement is there in the first two lines? 

2. What statement follows ? 

3. What relation has the fourth line to the third ? 

4. What comparison do you find in the first two lines 
of the second stanza ? 

5. Translate the second Hne into literal language. 

6. What relation have the third and fourth lines to the 
first and second lines ? 

7. Are they in keeping with those lines ? 

8. What does the third stanza contain ? 

9. Is it figurative or literal? 

10. What is the first line of the fourth stanza? 

11. What relation has the second line to the first? 

12. What is the office of yet f 

13. What relation has the exhortation in the last line 
to that contained in the first two lines ? 

14. Can any criticism be made on the last line? 



THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE-TREE. 

1 Come, let us plant the apple-tree. 

Cleave tlie tougli greensward with the spade ; 
Wide let its hollow bed be made ; 
There gently lay the roots, and there 
Sift the dark mould with kindly care, 

And press it o'er them tenderly, 
As round the sleeping infant's feet 
We softly fold the cradle-sheet ; 

So plant we the apple-tree. 

2 What plant we in this apple-tree ? 
Buds, which the breath of summer clays 
Shall lengthen into leafy sprays ; 

Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast, 
Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest ; 

We plant, upon the sunny lea, 
A shadow for the noontide hour, 
A shelter from the summer shower. 

When we plant the apple-tree. 

3 What plant we in this apple-tree ? 
Sweets for a hundred flowery springs 
To load the May-wind's restless wings. 



124 ■ STUDIES IN BRYANT. 

When, from the orchard row, he pours 
Its fragrance through our open doors ; 

A world of blossoms for the bee, 
Flowers for the sick girl's silent room. 
For the glad infant sprigs of bloom. 

We plant with the apple-tree. 

4 What plant we in this apple-tree ? 
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, 
An& redden in the August noon. 
And drop, when gentle airs come by, 
That fan the blue September sky. 

While children come, with cries of glee. 
And seek them where the fragrant grass 
Betrays their bed to those who pass. 

At the foot of the apple-tree. 

5 And when, above this apple-tree. 
The winter stars are quivering bright, 
And winds go howling through the night. 
Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth, 
Shall peel its fruit by cottage hearth, 

And guests in prouder homes shall see, 
Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine. 
And golden orange of the line, 

The fruit of the apple-tree. 

6 The fruitage of this apple-tree 
Winds, and our flag of stripe and star. 
Shall bear to coasts that lie afar, 



THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE-TREE. 125 

"Where men shall wonder at the view, 
And ask in what fair groves they grew ; 

And sojourners beyond the sea 
Shall think of childhood's careless day, 
And long, long hours of summer play, 

In the shade of the apple-tree. 

7 Each year shall give this apple-tree 
A broader fiush of roseate bloom, 

A deeper maze of verdurous gloom. 
And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower, 
The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower. 

The years shall come and pass, but we 
Shall hear no longer, where we lie. 
The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh, 

In the boughs of the apple-tree. 

8 And time shall waste this apple-tree. 
Oh, when its aged branches throw 
Thin shadows on the ground below, 
Shall fraud and force and iron will 
Oppress the weak and helpless still ? 

What shal] the tasks of mercy be, 
Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears 
Of those who live when length of years 

Is wasting this apple- tree ? 

9 "Who planted this old apple-tree ? " 
The children of that distant day 
Thus to some aged man shall say ; 



126 STUDIES m BRYANT. 

And, gazing on its mossy stem, 
The gray-haired man shall answer them : 
"A poet of the land was he. 
Born in the rude but good old times ; 
'Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes 
On planting the apple-tree." 



1. With what proposal does the poem open? 

2. "What does the rest of the stanza describe ? 

3. State the successive acts to be performed. 

4. What is the first line of the second stanza ? 

5. Repeat in their order the things mentioned in the 
answer. 

6. Repeat, in like manner, the answer in the third 
stanza. 

7. What is meant by springs? 

8. What personification in the third line ? 

9. To what does icorld ofblossoms refer? 

10. What relation have the seventh and eighth lines to 
the second line ? 

11. To what does the answer in the fourth stanza refer? 

12. Trace the fruit through the stanza. 

13. What is said in the fifth stanza ? 

14. Why is quivering used? 

15. What figure is in the third line ? 

16. What cottage scene is described? 

17. What statement in the last four lines ? 

18. What is said in the sixth stanza? 

19. What will awaken the thoughts expressed in the 
last four lines ? 

20. What figure is in this stanza? 



THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE-TREE. 127 

21. What statements are there in the first part of the 
seventh stanza? 

22. What is the meaning of the second line ? 

23. What of the third? 

24. What is said in the last four lines ? 

25. What is the first line of the eighth stanza? 

26. What two questions are asked in this stanza? 

27. What is meant by throwing thin shadows ? 

28. How is iron used in the fourth line ? 

29. What is the first line of the ninth stanza ? 

30. Who shall ask the question ? 
81. Who shall answer it? 

32. What answer will be given ? 



THE END. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
015 971 197 3 



MiHM*WBMHIMMBa«IMMMaMnaERI«:' 



